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THE LIFE 



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JAMES MCCOSH 




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THE LIFE 



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JAMES MCCOSH 



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EDITED BY 

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WILLIAM MILLIGAN SLOANE 



WITH PORTRAITS 



NEW YORK 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 

1896 



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Copyright, 1896, 
By Charles Scribner's Sons. 



5Entbmttg Press: 
John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U. S. A. 



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CONTENTS 

Page 
James McCosh, 1811-1894 1 

Chapter 

I. Ancestry 3 

II. Autobiographical. — Early Life .... 10 

III. Life at Glasgow University 24 

IV. Autobiographical. — Life at Edinburgh 

University 37 

V. Autobiographical. — First Pastorate. — 

Arbroath 50 

VI. Autobiographical. — Second Pastorate and 

Disruption of the Established Church 67 
VII. Autobiographical. — Men and Scenes of 

THE Disruption 85 

VIII. First Epoch of a Life-Work 102 

IX. Public Life in Ireland 125 

X. Autobiographical. — Travels in Germany 

AND America 144 

XL Philosophy and Teaching ....... 166 

XII. Autobiographical. — Twenty Years of 

Princeton 181 

XIII. Autobiographical. — Twenty Years of 

Princeton, continued 198 

XIV. Autobiographical. — Twenty Years of 

Princeton, continued 215 



VI CONTENTS 

Chapter Page 
XV. Autobiographical. — Twenty Years op 

Princeton, continued 227 

XVI. Life in America 241 

XVII. Aftermath 259 

Bibliography 269 

Index 283 



JAMES MCCOSH 

1811-1894 

TO have seen a century rise and wane ; to have spent 
threescore years of active, influential life in its 
very noon ; to have moulded in some degree the thought 
of two generations in three lands ; to have shared in 
Scotland's latest struggle for religious liberty; to have 
wrought in the great enterprise of Ireland's intellectual 
emancipation ; to have led a powerful educational move- 
ment in America, and to have regenerated one of her 
most ancient universities, — these are the titles of James 
McCosh to public distinction. (He was a philosopher, but 
no dreamer ; a scholar, but no recluse ; a preacher, but no 
ideologue ; a teacher, but no martinet ; he was a thinker, 
a public leader, and a practical man of affairs.^ For these 
sufficient reasons those who were closely associated with 
him during the last three years of his life determined to 
secure, if possible, a memorial of his many activities. He 
was induced to set down from time to time such remi- 
niscences as appeared to him instructive or entertaining, 
and these were intrusted for keeping to his son and a 
family friend as materials for his biographer, when the 



2 JAMES MCCOSH 

time should come for a critical estimate of his life and 
work. That time is, of course, still distant, but in the 
meanwhile such has been the desire of his co-workers 
and pupils, and of many in the general public, for some 
permanent record of the facts and dates of his life, that 
it was thought best to arrange the available material, and 
to publish it as early as possible for the gratification of 
those concerned. What is set down in the following 
pages as fact has been submitted to his family and 
scrutinized in the light of authentic records ; what has 
been taken verbatim from Dr. McCosh's letters or remi- 
niscences is so marked. For the opinions expressed, the 
writer alone is responsible, but in forming them he has 
had valuable assistance from many quarters. In particu- 
lar, he is under great obligations to Professors Ormond 
and Scott, and to the Eev. J. H. Dulles, all three of whom 
were students in Princeton within the period of Dr. 
McCosh's administration. He asks the reader's indul- 
gence for the repetitions and somewhat irregular chro- 
nology incident to the plan of the book. 



CHAPTER I 

ANCESTRY 

TN the parish churchyard of Straiten, a village of 
Ayrshire in southwestern Scotland, which is situ- 
ated on the banks of the Girvan Eiver, and not far from 
Loch Doon, stands the tombstone of Jasper McCosh, who 
died in 1727. The earliest recorded ancestor of James 
McCosh, he lies among the forefathers of his race, — a 
stock renowned for their devotion to principle amid the 
persecutions attendant on the misguided efforts of Charles 
11. to impose episcopacy upon the Scotch Presbyterians. 
The name is Celtic, and the McCoshes, sons of foot, are 
scattered throughout the neighboring counties, being 
numerous also in Irish Ulster, whence, in all proba- 
bility, they emigrated into Scotland. But they had 
become in time so intermingled with Anglo-Saxon blood 
that they were an integral portion of the true Lowland 
Scotch. The "wild Scots of Galloway," as they were 
called in the earliest days, were merged in the Teutonic 
migrations which peopled England and southern Scot- 
land, being so anglicized that many of the McCosh 
clan, for example, translated their Celtic name into the 
English equivalent, and under the name of Foot or 
Eoote settled in various portions of Great Britian. The 
descendants of Jasper McCosh laid no claim to aris- 
tocratic descent, but they were for all that a proud 



4 JAMES MCCOSH 

family. Moral and charitable, they cherished their inde- 
pendence, and considered the virtues of industry and fru- 
gality upon which it was based as second only to their 
devotion and piety. For twenty years their ancestors 
had endured persecution and even martyrdom for " Christ's 
crown and covenant," as they designated their ecclesias- 
tical principles ; and although much had occurred in the 
interval to revolutionize the character of their faith and 
conduct, they were still proud of the noble endurance, the 
lofty purpose, and the undying heroism of their ancestors. 
Though they belonged to what is generally designated 
the middle class, they were people of substance and 
refinement, being for the most part large farmers, tending 
their flocks and herds on the hills above, and cultivating 
the dales below with assiduity and success. To be one 
of this class, to have neither poverty nor riches, is a 
decided advantage for the student of human nature, since 
it enables him, without the separation of any social stra- 
tum, to hold easy intercourse both with those beneath 
and with those above. 

The farmers of the lands " between hill and dale " in 
Ayrshire were favored by neither soil nor climate, and 
were forced to hard labor, careful management, and great 
frugality in order to increase the store which they had 
inherited from those who for ages had been engaged in 
the same struggle. Originally the land had been divided 
into small plots, granted to the retainers and dependents 
of petty chieftains, who paid their rent by fighting in their 
masters' quarrels, whatever these might be. With the 
advance of civilization, such services had become less and 
less valuable to the owners, while the progress made in 
agriculture necessitated not merely better tillage and the 



ANCESTRY 5 

use of improved implements, but required for the best 
economy that the size of the holdings should be greatly 
increased. The minor tenants had therefore become 
tradesmen or farm-servants, or else had emigrated, the 
small farms having been absorbed in the larger ones. 
The proprietors had become in large measure absentee 
landlords, spending their increased revenues in travel, or 
in introducing their families to the higher circles of Lon- 
don society. Finding it easier and more satisfactory to 
collect their rents from a single large tenant than from a 
number of petty ones, they favored the substantial 
farmers at every point, and left the peasantry to desert 
their little homes and become artisans in towns, or else 
to wander into foreign lands and become wealthy, suc- 
cessful colonizers in all parts of the globe. For ages these 
plain people, enlightened by their parish schools and their 
church, had been evolving a well-known type of character 
which is admirably delineated in the autobiographical notes 
of Dr. McCosh given in the next chapter. The " canny " 
or " able " Scot is a cosmopolitan, present wherever there 
is work to do, money to be got, and honor to be won. 
At home they displayed their powers in the only line open 
to them, namely, in their farming, which they brought to 
a state of perfection unsurpassed, if indeed equalled, in 
any other land. This was made possible only by the capital 
of the larger farmers, but in the process it was impossible 
to form and consolidate a body of peasant farmers, who 
might have lived contentedly at home as good citizens, 
and have prevented the development of many unfortu- 
nate social tendencies. It has been good for the world 
that so many of Scotland's ablest sons have settled 
in other countries ; but there was a time in their own 



6 JAMES MCCOSH 

when their high idealism and sturdy courage were sorely 
missed. 

Andrew McCosh, a descendant in the third generation 
of the Jasper before mentioned, and the father of James, 
lived at a time when the state of society in Scotland, 
though picturesque and interesting from a human point 
of view, was deplorable in regard to morality and piety. 
By good management and thrift he became the tenant of 
half-a-dozen small farms, aggregating in all about a thou- 
sand acres, for which he paid as many pounds to the 
proprietor in annual rental. He was, of course, an intel- 
ligent man, and thoroughly capable in the management of 
his affairs. From him his famous son inherited his fond- 
ness for that quiet reflection to which the sire, like many 
of his race, was much given. The notice of his death in 
the local paper, " The Ayr and Wigtonshire Courier," bears 
testimony to his virtues, and to the esteem in which he 
was held in the neighborhood. It was probably written 
by the Kev. Dr. Paul, a nephew of the Sir Henry Mon- 
creiff so influential at the time; he was then pastor of 
Straiten, and afterwards became minister of St. Cuthbert's, 
Edinburgh. The eulogium runs as follows: "Died at 
Carskeoch, July 9th, 1820, Mr. Andrew McCosh, for 
many years tenant in that farm. We notice the death of 
that excellent and exemplary man with feelings of deep- 
est regret. By this neighborhood, in which he lived, we 
scarcely believe a greater loss could be sustained. To 
his family and connections he was ever kind, sympathetic, 
and faithful, and such, from the natural sweetness of his 
disposition, he probably would have been, even though 
he had not been actuated by any higher feelings. In his 
transactions with mankind his great object was to do 



ANCESTRY 7 

justly. His unaffected simplicity of manner, his freedom 
from artifice and guile, were proverbial among all who 
knew him. His modesty spread a covering over all other 
virtues, improving what it was intended to conceal. The 
property with which God had entrusted him he seemed 
to consider as a loan which would afterwards be required 
at his hand with interest. As a friend of the poor, his 
loss will not soon be forgotten. Poverty, sickness, and 
old age always found in him a sympathizing heart, a 
relieving and protecting hand. Cheerfully did he per- 
form the offices of kindness of which his Saviour had set 
him an example. The poor, the maimed, were admitted 
to his home and served from his board. He knew that 
they could not compensate him, but wherever these were 
the effects and expression of a Christian faith, we know 
that they will be remembered at the resurrection of the 
just." 

That this measured praise was well merited seems clear 
to all who knew Dr. McCosh intimately. The memory 
of his God-fearing parents was one of the strongest influ- 
ences in his life. His own tribute to them is as follows : 
" I was only nine years of age when my father died, in 
1820, but I remember so much, and saw so much of his 
work remaining, as to know that the account given above 
is correct ; and I am proud of it. Almost every evening 
a beggar, or a family of beggars, was apt to appear about 
nightfall ; they got a bed in the stable, and a substantial 
supper and breakfast. I remember that my father kept 
in his kitchen a poor idiot man, whom we youngsters used 
to plague, and that we were rebuked for it. He gave 
homes to several poor women on his farm. He was kind 
to all poor relatives, sending them meal, and carting coals 



8 JAMES MCCOSH 

for them. This kindness was always shown in a delicate 
way. We were four miles from the parish church, our 
house being on the Doon, and the church being on the 
Girvan, and we often spent the interval between the 
forenoon and afternoon services in the home of a genteel 
family, whose father had lived by smuggling claret 
and brandy, which he carried up from the sea-coast by a 
band of armed men and horses into the interior. The 
strong hand of the law was brought to bear upon him, 
many sharp fights took place between him and the sol- 
diers, and he was reduced to poverty. We carried with 
us into the man's house a considerable stock of provisions, 
of which we partook ourselves, and left the larger por- 
tion to the family. We children were ordered to say 
nothing about it to any one. 

" The story of the way in which my mother's uncle 
treated a sturdy beggar became well known in the neigh- 
borhood. My grand-uncle, on giving him blankets for 
the night, asked him what security he would give that 
they should not be stolen, and was assured that he gave 
God Almighty as security. Next morning the man and 
blankets were off, with no hope of their casting up again. 
The thief wandered all day among the mists of the moun- 
tains, and in the evening he asked quarters at the same 
house without knowing it to be the same. My uncle 
saluted him, told him he had given good security, and 
invited him to stay one night more, and the beggar was 
so impressed with the scene that there was no more 
thieving. 

" My mother, Jean Carson, was the daughter of James 
Carson, a large farmer in a wild, moorland district of 
Scotland at the top of Loch Doon. When my father 



ANCESTRY 9 

took her to his home as his wife, she is described as a 
modest and retiring young woman, but as the cares of a 
family were thrown upon her, her native energy developed, 
and she ruled well her household. She was early left a 
widow with a large family, consisting of six daughters 
and myself, whom she reared with care and tenderness, 
and showed great skill and ability in the management of 
the farms she was left. On her mother's side, she was 
connected with a well-known Covenanting family, named 
McClymont. Her father's family were Scotch Covenant- 
ers, who had fought at the battles of Drumclog and Both- 
well Brig, and maintained for twenty-eight years the lib- 
erties of Scotland, and had often to hide in the dens and 
caves of the earth on the banks of the Stinchar, near the 
house of the persecutor. Sir Archibald Kennedy, of Culzean 
Castle. One day Mr. McClymont returned home, and 
looking out of his window he saw a company of soldiers 
riding furiously towards his house, and had only time, 
before they reached it, to hide among some raspberry 
bushes. They demanded of his wife where her husband 
was, and she said that they might seek for him. Then 
they insisted that they must have food for their horses, 
and she pointed them to a hay-stack. They placed a 
guard over the dwelling, and began to cut down the hay. 
One of the troopers, seeing the tempting raspberries, 
started to pull them. She saw that her husband was in 
danger, but she was equal to the emergency. She pulled 
berries till she found one with a large worm in it, and 
showed it to the English trooper, who was so disgusted 
by the sight that he returned to the hay-stack, and her 
husband was saved. I am sure that I owe much of my 
character by heredity to this woman." 



CHAPTER II 

AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL. EARLY LIFE 

1811-1824 

WAS born on April 1, 1811, at my father's farm-house, 
called Carskeoch. If any one has a choice of a place 
of birth and training, let him fix upon a farm-house (I 
learned when in Ireland to commit Irish Bulls), and 
always to be under a father or mother, without whom 
no external advantages can benefit the child. The boy 
is thus surrounded with objects fitted to interest him 
and call forth his energies. Here I wandered at my 
own free will, following my thoughts and fancies among 
green and heather, hills and valleys, among trees and 
rocks and brooks (Scottice burns). Here I became in- 
terested in wild plants, such as lilies, roses, meadow-sweet, 
and foxgloves. Here I found birds flying, chirping, or 
curiously building their nests. Here I had sheep and 
lambs (every boy should have his motherless lamb as a 
pet) ; here I had horses and foals, hens and ducks, geese 
and turkeys. Here I had my collie dog, called "Fam- 
ous," and my pony, called " Cuddy." The boy should 
watch the ways of all these creatures ; he should care 
for them and feed them; in short, should make them 
his friends. I had to hold intercourse with servant lads 
and lassies tending the cows and working the horses. 
It is a sphere fitted to call forth reflection and independ- 



AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL. — EARLY LIFE 11 

ence. It was in such a scene that I was reared, in a 
good stone house, with comfortable rooms and bed-rooms, 
and a garret where the men-servants slept; grouped 
around about were the farm buildings, — a milk-house, a 
stable, a barn, and a cart or carriage house. 

Carskeoch was pleasantly situated, within a quarter of 
a mile of the river Doon, about ten miles from its mouth, 
on the bay ^ of Ayr, and with a considerably wide view 
all around. Following the river upwards, we had first 
extensive meadows, now cut up by lately discovered iron 
works, then a romantic glen, through which the river 
flowed from the lake above, and on that lake a ruined 
castle which was famous in the days of Bruce. I do 
not believe that natural scenery has had so much 
influence on character as is sometimes imagined, but I 
know that Loch Doon, on which I have so often fished, 
and the wild scenery between Ayrshire and Galloway, 
have created within me that intense taste which I have 
for mountain scenery. Following the Doon downwards 
we have " Ye banks and braes of bonnie Doon," and, at 
the mouth, Eobert Burns's birthplace. The river flows 
from east'to west ; north of it are heather hills, and south 
of it the cultivated fields of Scotland, running on towards 
England. The region was never visited by Sir Walter 
Scott, who was the main instrument of making romantic 
certain parts of Scotland, and so is not as well known as 
some other districts not so romantic. 

I may here give a picture of the character of the dis- 
trict with which I was at one time so well acquainted. 
The region had passed through stirring scenes in the days 
of Wallace. Now and then some knowing man showed 

1 A recess of level ground surrounded by hills. 



12 JAMES MCCOSH 

me a tree in wliicli the Scottish patriot had hid from 
his English persecutors. We all knew the " barns of 
Ayr," which he had burned. In the Reformation and 
post-Eeformation periods there had been fierce contests 
among the barons of Ayrshire and Galloway. Afterward 
there had been a strong Covenanting movement in the 
southwest of Scotland, among a people who had been 
trained by their ministers in the stern principles of the 
Presbyterian Church of Scotland, and were resolved to 
resist the prelacy which was attempted to be imposed 
on them. There must have been much religious life in 
the days of the Covenant, otherwise the people would not 
have submitted to such privations ; the hearts of the 
great body of the people must have been deeply 
moved, otherwise they would not have submitted to such 
suffering. 

But the religious life in later ages had been suppressed 
by the blight of moderation, and now religion had very 
much disappeared. Immorality followed, and there was 
a low tone of duty among the people, while drinking 
and licentiousness prevailed. The stream which had 
rushed over rocks and precipices was now flowing through 
a level plain. The people had comparatively few tradi- 
tions, and the young were not much interested in them. 
The Eeformation had done little but set aside the fables 
of the Middle Ages. The Patronage Act of 1711, which 
took away the power of appointing ministers from the 
heritors and parishioners, and gave it to patrons who 
often forced worldly ministers into the pulpit, had 
effaced the remembrance of the glorious struggles of the 
Eeformation and the Covenant. There were tombstones 
in nearly every parish which told of men who had been 



AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL. — EARLY LIFE 13 

sliot for Christ's Kingdom and Covenant, but these were 
now moss-grown and little attended to. The great body 
of the people, immersed in matters connected with the 
cultivation of their land, admitted that these old worthies 
had been very good men, but congratulated themselves 
on living in more enlightened times. 

The few traditions took a superstitious turn. When 
I was a boy, an old lady told me that her father, who 
was one of the tenants, had been among those who bore 
the body of Sir Archibald Kennedy, the persecutor, to 
his grave. It was a dark and furious night. At first 
the coffin was so heavy that they could scarcely carry 
it. As they entered the graveyard, a black raven was 
heard croaking from a tree above them. Suddenly the 
coffin became lighter; the contents had evidently been 
carried away. In the same night, and at the same hour, 
a fiery ship was seen crossing the Bay of Ayr at a tre- 
mendous speed. A bold skipper challenged it, " From 
whence to where," and the answer was, " From Hell to 
Kirkoswald, to Sir Archibald Kennedy's funeral." A 
few minutes after, the same ship was seen returning, and 
was again saluted, "From whence to where," and the 
answer was, " From Kirkoswald to Hell, bearing Sir 
Archibald Kennedy." 

It was during the last century that the character of the 
Lowland Scot was formed. That character is a distinc- 
tive one. It is different from that of the inhabitants of 
the other countries of the British dominion. The Low- 
lander is nearly as obstinate as the Highlander, but he is 
not so fiery. He has not the impulsiveness and flighti- 
ness of the Irishman, his wit, or his warm display of 
friendship or enmity. He is naturally of an anxious 



14 JAMES MCCOSH 

spirit, though he tries to hide it, being in this respect 
like the Yankee. He has not the self-sufficiency of the 
Englishman, who carries his point by his good sense and 
composure. The Scot is proverbially " canny," that is, 
cautious in taking up his position, but apt to be obsti- 
nate in holding by it. He is strongly bent on being inde- 
pendent, but if it expose him to danger, slow in exhibiting 
it. When he sets out on any undertaking it is very diffi- 
cult to make him turn back. The following incident is 
characteristic. I remember being placed on one horse, 
to lead a second horse behind me by a halter ; I held by 
the halter till I was pulled over the horse's tail, • — a very 
picture of the young Scotchman sticking by a cause which 
he might easily abandon. 

The common people of Scotland attained a consider- 
able amount of intelligence at an earlier date than any 
other community in Europe. This they owed to John 
Knox, who insisted on having a school in every parish, 
an academy in every burgh town, and a university in every 
large city. In every school the Bible was taught ; in some 
districts it was the Book of Proverbs that was used as 
a text-book, and helped to give the people their shrewd- 
ness. I have to add that the Shorter Catecliism, drawn 
out by the Westminster divines, was committed to 
memory in the schools, and in nearly every family, and 
being the best logical compend of the system of doctrine 
laid down in the Bible, it gave to the people the logical 
turn for which they are distinguished in their thoughts 
and expressions. This education did not and could not 
produce the genius of Burns, of Scott, or Carlyle, but it 
came out in the massive sense by which they were dis- 
tinguished among literary people. Douce Davie Deans 



AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL. — EARLY LIFE 15 

and Jeanie Deans (and I may add Effie Deans) are per- 
fect pictures of Scottish characters. 

Of all the people I have met with, the Scotch have 
the least of what we call " manners " in their intercourse 
with the members of their family, with their neighbors, 
and with the world generally. The Scot loves his wife 
and family, and would make any sacrifice for them, but 
he seldom or never utters a word of compliment to them. 
He doubts the sincerity of such words and acts, and is 
apt to regard them as hypocrisy, having some selfish end 
in view, and speaks of them as Frenchified and un- 
worthy of an honest Scotchman. I confess I have often 
been repelled by the cool manner in which Scotch people, 
after long absences or in critical emergencies, often meet 
with each other. I remember going up to a most excel- 
lent man to comfort him when he was trying to restrain 
his tears as he hung over the body of his son, just de- 
ceased. I was chilled when all that he could utter was, 
" This is a fine day, sir." We can thus account for some 
of the oddities of Thomas Carlyle. I have known a 
number of ministers like him. He was at one time 
nearly becoming a minister, and a curious minister he 
would have been. We are amazed to read that he was 
often cold and indifferent, at times rude to his wife ; but 
he loved her all the while, and would have died for her 
at any time. 

Scotchmen are often described as being cold and selfish, 
but the bareness is only on the surface, beneath which 
there is often a well of tender affection. With no pre- 
tensions or promises, they stand by their families and 
friends as resolutely as any people on the face of the 
earth. When they give their assent, possibly in few 



16 JAMES MCCOSH 

words, it is commonly found tliat you can trust them. 
The parts which they acted at the Eeformation, again in 
the Covenanting struggle, and at a later date in the Free 
Church movement, are proofs of their resolution and 
courage on great questions of principle. I have often 
thought that it would be better for themselves, and for 
their influence over their fellow-men, if, instead of restrain- 
ing and concealing their feelings, they would allow them 
full expression, as the Irish do. 

In the seventeenth century the Lowlands of Scotland 
had been ploughed and harrowed by the great Covenant- 
ing struggle. For a time the fruits were reaped in a gen- 
eral religious life throughout the country, with family 
worship in most of the households in which there was a 
profession of religion, where also young men and women 
were trained in the doctrines of the Shorter Catechism. 
But all this was changed when the Government sanctioned 
the Patronage Act of 1711, taking away the power of 
appointing ministers from the parishes, and giving it to 
the Patrons, — the crown with its political ends claiming 
one-third of the benefices, and the other two-thirds being 
given to private noblemen or gentlemen who had no 
interest in the spiritual welfare of the people. The result 
was the formation of a class of ministers who were called 
Moderates, because they often preached on the text, " Be 
moderate in all things," and sought to allay the heats of 
the previous century. Young men of a worldly spirit 
were appointed to the ministry, commonly well educated 
and of good manners, but with no spiritual life. 

I have before me a volume of sermons by the minister 
who baptized me, — an accomplished man who after- 
wards became the Professor of Moral Philosophy in the 



AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL. — EARLY LIFE 17 

University of St Andrews. It is gracefully written, in 
short and well-constructed sentences, and it has fine sen- 
timent ; but it does not contain one sentence of gospel 
truth, that is, of Jesus set forth as the Eedeemer of sinners. 
Blair's sermons, so graceful yet so powerless, were the 
models all over the country among the younger ministers. 
They were greatly admired by young men and women of 
note, but had no moving influence on the great body of 
the people, as they did not speak of sin and salvation, - — 
subjects which the latter would have understood from 
their own experience. 

The degeneracy in religion was followed by a degener- 
acy in morals. It is a law of God's government that 
religion is the main instrument of keeping up a high mor- 
ality in a district, and that where religion loses its hold, 
the restraints on vice are removed. It was so in Scot- 
land in the latter two-thirds of the last century, and in 
the earlier one-third of this. In particular, two vicious 
habits, which have exercised so prejudicial an influence on 
Scottish character, became prevalent at this time. First, 
there was intemperance. The great body of the people 
did not drink to excess, but there was use of ardent 
spirits on all occasions, — at christenings, at weddings, 
at all family and all social gatherings. The farmer could 
not sell a horse, a cow, or a calf, without being obliged 
to give drink to the buyer. On IsTew Year's Day the 
children were accustomed to give presents to their 
teacher, the boy and girl who gave the largest sum 
being king and queen for the day (I was king for several 
years), and the teacher had to give them toddy to drink. 
The consequence was that many young men, including a 
number of my companions, one of them a most amiable 

2 



18 JAMES MCCOSH 

young man, and a dear friend of mine, fell before the 
temptation. When at school I often saw staggering along 
the streets the most gentlemanly farmer in the neighbor- 
hood, the largest manufacturer, and the village black- 
smith and carpenter. Every here and there were parishes 
in which the minister was apt to join in the festivities, 
and had to be helped home by his people. I knew a case 
in which the people gathered at a funeral, and drank so 
hard that when they arrived at the burial place, several 
miles off, they found that they had forgot to bring with 
them the cofhn and the corpse. 

A second prevailing vice was the illicit intercourse 
of young men and women. This was very common 
before marriage. The minister of a neighboring parish 
had been guilty of it. This state of things was to a large 
extent produced by the secretiveness of the Scottish 
character, by the determination of the younger men and 
women to have their love-affairs thoroughly concealed. 
The fathers and mothers, and the master and mistress of 
the farms, did not allow an open courtship. The plough- 
man came stealthily to the farm-house, and indicated his 
presence in the way spoken of in the song, " Whistle and 
I'll come to you, my lad." The young woman went out 
to meet her lover, and the two walked in some hidden 
path, or took refuge in the barn. It has to be added that 
the life after marriage was in general kept absolutely 
pure. I am sorry to recall by way of exception that the 
master of the coal works corrupted the wives of many of 
the work people in my neighborhood by giving them 
small presents. 

The consequence of all this was that there was no 
healthy public sentiment on these subjects. The drink- 



AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL. — EARLY LIFE 19 

ing men were genial, and commonly very popular. The 
falls of young men and women were readily excused. 
The Kirk Session exercised discipline, but the rebukes 
on the cutty-stool were of a coarse description, and 
tended rather to harden the character. 

It is easy to see how, under these circumstances, young 
Eobert Burns was so easily led astray by the flax-dresser 
in Irvine, when he went to live there. I can speak on 
this subject with confidence, for I was born fifteen years 
after his death, on the same river which he has made so 
famous, and I know the circumstances in which he 
lived. When he came back from Edinburgh, in which 
he had been so well treated, he declared he had found as 
much wit and talent among " the jolly bachelors of Tar- 
bolton " as in the highest literary circles of Edinburgh. 
But he adds that he had not met with a pure refinement 
of mind among females until he visited the metropolis 
of Scotland. Burns's example, his perpetual outflow of 
wit and humor, and some of his poems circulated among 
the people, tended to foster the views of which I have 
been speaking. The tradition is, that when he got into 
a jovial party in his later life, his expression was in the 
first instance dull, and his countenance flat enough, but 
as he drank the rounds of toddy he brightened amazingly, 
and kept the whole table in a roar. There were no 
temperance societies in those days to raise a public senti- 
ment against the evils. The scholarly preaching in the 
churches had little effect on the great body of the people. 
As a rule, the moderate clergy favored young Burns. 
The most devoted clergy were exposed by him and his 
friends to ridicule. 

This is a picture of the times in which I lived, but it 



20 JAMES MCCOSH 

is time to return to the scenes through which I passed, 
and by them to give a picture of the character of the 
people. My father was never called " Mr. McCosh," but 
" Carskeoch," after the farm on which he lived. After 
his decease in 1820, I had to represent him and the 
family at the marriages and funerals in the neighborhood. 
I am able to testify to the great talent which the people 
showed in their social intercourse, in discussions on all 
subjects, human and divine, and in the humorous re- 
marks, often very coarse, which they threw out. Burns 
certainly had not the advantage of a refining education, 
but he grew up among a people whose shrewdness stimu- 
lated his native faculties into life. As I advanced from 
boyhood to manhood, I remember arguing with the 
farmers and in the village shops over the most profound 
subjects.^ 

1 " The experiences of Dr. McCosh's boyhood have left a clear stamp on 
his memory, and in the familiar talk which at times interrupts the dignity 
of a lecture or the solemnity of a sermon, frequently serve to point a moral. 
One of the most humorous is very characteristic. On a certain day about 
his eighth year, his mother was to make her regular visit to the near- 
est market town. Her son was to enjoy the dignity of escorting her 
as a reward for good behavior. The drive was delightful, and the sense 
of merit and importance grew stronger and stronger in the child's mind. 
Arrived in the main street, the horses and carriage were sent to the inn 
stables, and the shopping tour began. Before long the boy began to 
suffer somewhat, as do most of his sex under similar circumstances. He 
was stationed accordingly at the door of the shop with strict injunctions 
to keep his hands off the tempting wares exhibited at his entrance by the 
grocer. Before long a sweep with all his sooty armor spied in the door- 
way the small but important figure, somewhat conscious of his first-best 
clothes, and began a series of those insulting gestures with which street 
gamins express disdain and sportive contempt. For a time the young 
countryman forbore, but he had been " brought up on gude parritch," 
and could at last endure no more. He accordingly attacked and thor- 
oughly thrashed the mocking sweep before his mother, attracted by the 
gathering crowd, could interfere. What was his dismay when, instead of 



AUTOBIOGKAPHICAL. — EARLY LIFE 21 

My father was known as promoting religion and 
morality in his household. "He took the book," as it 
was styled, every Sabbath evening; that is, he had 
family worship, which all his children and servants 
attended. I remember the graphic expressions which he 
often used in his prayers, especially in confessing his 
shortcomings. Our parish, Straiten, was a very extended 
one, some of the people in the muirland district being a 
dozen miles from the kirk. We could not go to church 
in a conveyance without going seven miles around, 
and we preferred a more direct route through an unin- 
habited moor. Some of my most interesting recollections 
gather round these Sabbath excursions. My father and 
mother, who went regularly to the house of God, rode on 
horseback. We young people walked on foot, except that 
after my father's death I rode his pony. 

My father wished me to become a scholar, and destined 
me to the work of the ministry. He sent me to school 
at the age of six. At nine he made me begin Latin. 
Though not remarkably bright, and particularly with no 
faculty for acquiring languages, I made good progress in 
my studies. My master was Mr. Quintin Smith, a fer- 
vently pious man, and I owe much to him in calling 
my attention to religion when there was so little of it 
in the district. He read extensively, and I often called 
upon him in the evening and enjoyed the only literary 
intercourse I could find in the place. He afterwards 

the approbation which he felt hfi had earned, the crowd liroke out into 
laughter at the sight of his sooty and smutty face and garments. The 
carriage was instantly recalled, the bedraggled victor hurried into it, and 
the eagerly expected day of pleasure turned into one of humiliation by the 
long and dreary homeward journey and the reproofs of his father." — 
John Van Cleve in the " Century Magazine," February, 1887. 



22 JAMES MCCOSH 

went to America, where he became a farmer, teacher, and 
preacher. He was pleased beyond measure when an 
American minister showed him a copy of the " Method 
of Divine Government," by his old pupil. 

These were the circumstances in which I was brought 
up. I owed it to the restraiats of God's providence that 
I did not go astray, as I am sorry to say so many of my 
companions, the farmers' sons, did. From a very early 
date I purposed to make the ministry of the Word my 
life-work. 

The motives which weighed with me in taking this 
step were, I am afraid, of a very mixed and insufficient 
character. I did not care much for agricultural employ- 
ment, though I took charge both of the sheep and cattle, 
and wrought in the hay and harvest fields, all to assist 
my mother after my father's decease. These occupa- 
tions gave me a considerable knowledge of the practical 
affairs of life, and an insight into the character of men 
and women, which has been of service to me in after life. 
As to other professions, I did not care much for mixing 
drugs and visiting the sick, and I did not care to be a 
lawyer, as I disliked wrangling. I was all along fond of 
books, and I eagerly read those I had access to. I 
remember reading in my boyish days "D wight's Theo- 
logy," and a large geographical Cyclopsedia, which my 
father had bought from a travelling canvasser. At a later 
date I read " Pamela, or Virtue Eewarded," by Eichard- 
son, and the " Spectator," ordered by my sister. So I 
went on to acquire knowledge, looking to the ministry as 
the means open to me of gratifying my tastes. I felt all 
the while that if I was to be a minister, I must be pious. 
Often, therefore, did I dedicate myself to God, praying 



AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL. — EARLY LIFE 23 

earnestly, but not regularly or systematically. Ever and 
anon my conscience smote me for the irregularity in my 
devotions, and I became terribly anxious and earnest, 
and formed many resolutions for good. I think I can 
claim all along that I had a loose but sincere desire to do 
good in ways open to me. I believe that I have so far 
been swayed by this motive all my life. 

It is proper to add that already in my boyish days 
there had begun a reaction against the moderatism of the 
previous century. In the parish we had two ministers, 
who were kind to me personally. We had first Dr. Paul, 
and after him Dr. Paton, who was settled later in Glas- 
gow. They both preached the gospel in carefully pre- 
pared sermons. They were much respected, but scarcely 
succeeded in rousing the people, who for several ages 
had been under lethargic influence. What was needed 
first of all and above all was a John the Baptist to pre- 
pare the way of the Lord. 

It was when I was so placed and thus exercised that I 
was sent to Glasgow University, at the premature age of 
thirteen. 



CHAPTER m 

LIFE AT GLASGOW UNIVEKSITT 

1824-1829 

HTHE Scotch schoolmaster or " dominie " is well known 
to every reader of fiction. He was second only 
to the minister of the parish in the importance which 
he enjoyed among tlie people. This was due to the 
respect felt everywhere for education, and to the fact 
that in the main the " dominies " were men of sterling 
character, sound scholarship, and strong piety. The few 
words in which Dr. McCosh sketches the salient outlines 
of Mr. Quintin Smith show that his first teacher was 
a schoolmaster of the highest qualities. From him his 
young scholar obtained the elements of a sound educa- 
tion, being well grounded not only in the ordinary English 
branches, but securing a thorough knowledge of Greek 
and Latin Grammar and of a few authors in each of the 
classical tongues, together with the elements of Mathe- 
matics. For languages. Dr. McCosh considered himself to 
have had but little aptitude, but he excelled in Mathe- 
matics, both pure and applied, being endowed with strong 
reasoning powers, and having a logical turn of mind. It 
was therefore with an excellent preparation that he left 
home to enter upon his college career, not merely in the 
matter of intellectual attainments, but also in character 
and experience of life. Although but thirteen years old, he 
had felt himself, since his father's death, to be the staff 



LIFE AT GLASGOW UNIVERSITY 25 

of his family, and bound, as far as in Mm lay, to carry 
out the plans for his future which both his parents had 
cherished as those nearest their heart. It was with a 
firm purpose, in spite of his teens, that the boy set out 
for Glasgow University, thirty miles away, in charge of 
his cousin Samuel Walker McCosh, already a distin- 
guished scholar in that institution of learning. He was 
sustained by the sense that somethmg of importance, 
what he could not of course tell, but something real and 
valuable was to come of his college course ; yet for many 
months he felt serious pangs of homesickness as he saw 
the coach for Ayr pass the windows of his lodgings, and 
it was long ere his heart ceased to go with it toward his 
home in the hill country. 

From November, 1824, until the close of the session 
in 1825, he was one of a preparatory class then con- 
nected with Glasgow University. Having completed 
his preliminary work, he was launched the following 
year upon the regular course, and for four years more 
he followed the well-tried round of Latin, Greek, Mathe- 
matics, and Logic, together with Metaphysics and Physics, 
or rather Moral and Natural Philosophy, as the two latter 
departments were then called. Finally convinced from 
the traditions of his home, school, and church training, 
that a knowledge of the classics would open untold 
treasures, the boy toiled laboriously at his Latin and 
Greek. To the latter he became devoted, finding special 
enjoyment, as he often said, in reading Homer's vivid de- 
lineations of character. There was nothing of the prodigy 
in his advancement ; in Mathematics he stood well, but 
he went no farther than the Differential Calculus ; in the 
languages his progress was slow and laborious but sound. 



26 JAMES MCCOSH 

Owing to the early age at which he entered, he " cut no 
figure" in the class-room, to use his own phrase. He 
admired and probably envied the precocious lads who 
stood at the head of their classes, but he was made by 
them to feel both his extreme youth and his inexperience. 
Nevertheless, he was undismayed, and with courageous 
self-respect determined that one day, if not immediately, 
he would emulate their small successes in a larger sphere. 
Indeed very few of Dr. McCosh's fellow-students attained 
great distinction. Perhaps, with a suigie exception, he 
rose higher than any of them. 

Shy and proud, the young Ayrshire boy made few ac- 
quaintances, devoting his energies almost exclusively to 
his books. His faculties developed slowly and symmetri- 
cally in his ambitious but plodding cultivation of the 
classics, and his hours of recreation were spent in mis- 
cellaneous reading. It was the time when a curious 
world, not pampered and jaded by over-publication, 
looked upon the appearance of anything from the pens 
of Scott, Moore, or Byron as an event of the first impor- 
tance. Among a people of eager readers, whose scanty 
purses precluded their buying books, the librarians were 
hard beset, and one of Dr. McCosh's clearest memories 
was of his struggles for precedence in the favor of the 
worried and choleric custodian of the precious works 
which came into the library of Glasgow University. 
Persisting in his determination to secure the coveted 
feast without delay, he demanded the successive volumes 
of those splendid authors within a few days after pub- 
lication ; if unsuccessful, he managed to get them from 
the circulating libraries in the city at the rate of a penny 
a night for each. 



LIFE AT GLASGOW UNIVERSITY 27 

The stimulus of such reading was a most important 
supplement to the dry instruction of the class-room, and 
supplied a vitality for literary life which was not given 
by the overworked and formal professors, whose teaching, 
though soHd, was not inspiriting. The course of instruc- 
tion was substantial, but very narrow, and the professors 
were bitterly opposed to enlarging it. They had fixed 
salaries of a size entirely inadequate to their wants, and 
depended for their comfort and well-being upon the fees 
which they collected, three guineas for each student. 
In 1825 the number of students had greatly outgrown 
the facilities of the institution. The few class-rooms 
were packed, and it was impossible for the instructors 
to give personal attention to any one of their pupils. The 
lecture system was not properly developed, and the hearers 
were not mature enough to profit by it, if it had been. 
The progress made by each student was determined, 
therefore, almost entirely by his own capacity and will- 
power ; beyond the invaluable routine of university life 
he received little, getting a very slight stimulus and less 
training. It was notorious that very many, possibly the 
majority, passed through their college course without any 
intellectual drill, and without even obtaining a minute 
acquaintance with the few required branches. These 
were Latin and Greek in the first year, Greek and Logic 
in the second, Moral Philosophy and Mathematics in the 
third, and in the fourth year Natural Philosophy, with 
optional courses in the Higher Mathematics. Moreover, 
these subjects were not taught with a view to complete- 
ness in acquisition or finish. As is well known, there 
exist in Glasgow University a number of foundations 
known as the Snell scholarships which entitle those who 



28 JAMES MCCOSH 

obtain them to reside at Oxford for the completion of 
their studies. It was a general feeling that for the pro- 
fessors, in addition to their regular duties, it was a suffi- 
cient ambition to prepare the candidates for these honors 
thoroughly. Such preparation was of necessity a matter 
of routine, and in consequence even the ablest young men 
were not instigated to high and independent scholarship. 
Inasmuch as the Snell scholars, and those of their fellows 
who went at their own expense to England, almost regu- 
larly entered the Anglican church after their residence in 
Oxford, the Scottish Kirk, in the west of Scotland, had 
long been destitute of any real aristocracy of classical 
scholarship, and the Glasgow professors remained content 
to prepare their best youth for Oxford, without a thought 
of rivalling that famous seat of learning, or of elevating 
their own standards to an equality, with the highest. 

What saved the instruction from utter mediocrity or 
worse was a system of regular examinations and written 
exercises, rigidly enforced and honestly carried out. Dr. 
McCosh felt in particular that he owed more to the es- 
says he was required regularly to write than to any other, 
if not all other, elements in his education. In all classes 
above the lowest these essays were exacted frequently 
and peremptorily from each student, and the topics 
were taken from among subjects discussed by the pro- 
fessors in the class-room. So powerful was the influence 
of this single line of work that it enabled those trained 
by it to enter the professions and public life side by side 
with their more favored competitors from the English 
universities, at a very slight disadvantage. In this re- 
spect the Scottish colleges might be copied with profit 
by all academic institutions. Dr. McCosh was so deeply 



LIFE AT GLASGOW UNIVERSITY 29 

impressed at the time by the importance of written work 
for the student that many years later, in both the institu- 
tions where he was powerful in his mature life, the sys- 
tem was expanded and emphasized to a high degree. 

The professors of the day at Glasgow were a highly 
respectable body of men, even though for the reasons 
given they did not make much of a mark in the world 
of science and letters, nor upon their pupils. One of 
them, Daniel Sandford, who was later made a baronet, 
was a very brilliant maC; but, being also ambitious, he 
turned aside into politics, and, though successful in that 
career, left behind him no enduring monument of his 
scholarship. The department in which the young 
McCosh excelled, that of Mathematics, was presided over 
by a man so eccentric that his conduct was a dangerous 
incentive to fun and disorder among the students. The 
penalty for irregularity was a small fine, and this the 
delinquents were careful to pay in farthings, so as to 
afford the greatest merriment to the assembled class. If 
his back were turned for an instant in drawing or ex- 
plaining a diagram on the blackboard, there was at once 
a great uproar, and consequently he regularly presented 
the curious spectacle of demonstrating his propositions 
with the figure behind him. A common trick was for a 
student to ask permission to leave the room, and then 
remain until another would propose to go and seek him ; 
a third would then obtain liberty to search for the other 
two, and so on until as many as time would permit had 
gone out on the same pretext. Toward the close of the 
hour they would all return in a boisterous crowd, each 
ostentatiously dragging in the culprit who had preceded 
him. 



30 JAMES MCCOSH 

Such trivial anecdotes serve only to show how con- 
stant school-boy nature is. The incident of life in that 
class-room which Dr. McCosh naturally never forgot 
was one connected with a certain prize. There were 
two sections in Mathematics, the division being according 
to age, and in each a prize was awarded to the best 
scholar by a method of decision which was still in vogue 
on this side the sea a generation since, the votes, namely, 
of the scholars. McCosh was awarded the prize in the 
junior section by the suffrages of his fellow-students, 
but by that time he had shot up into a tall, slim lad, and 
the instructor, declaring that one so large could not 
possibly be in the lower grade, awarded the coveted honor 
to Tait, who was afterward Archbishop of Canterbury. 
The deeply offended sufferer stalked out of the class- 
room in great dignity. To his latest day as a teacher 
Dr. McCosh put forth his utmost efforts, ineffectual as 
they sometimes were, to have some personal acquain- 
tance with each pupil, and to see that each was treated 
with the most rigid justice. 

The natural bent of the young Glasgow student was 
manifest from the beginning in his predilection for 
studying the human mind. The two Presbyterian clergy- 
men who taught Logi-c and Moral Philosophy in the uni- 
versity were " moderates," with whom McCosh could have 
no affinity or sympathy, ardent and eager as his nature 
was. One of them he felt to be a fair disciplinarian and 
a good teacher, but his instruction was jejune and common- 
place. The other was a man of greater power, a Stoic in 
character, and a Sensationalist of the French school in his 
philosophy, resolving all the powers of the mind in a 
clear-cut way into Sensation, Memory, and Judgment. 



LIFE AT GLASGOW UNIVERSITY 31 

But neither was able to make pupils in tlie sense of 
carrying home conviction to students, and the highest 
merit of both was in spurring their hearers to antago- 
nism. McCosh became an extensive reader of philoso- 
phy ; in particular he was greatly stirred by Thomas 
Brown's lectures, and this interest developed into a 
deep enthusiasm for the study. In fact, Brown capti- 
vated his boy reader, who for the time preferred that 
author's subtle analysis of the mental processes to the 
more solid work of Eeid and Stewart, both of whom he 
ranks far higher than Brown in his history of the Scottish 
philosophy. 

These earliest investigations, however, led the student 
to see that Hume had entirely undermined the old meta- 
physics. He turned, therefore, to the study of the great 
sceptic, carefully perusing his " Treatise of Human Nature," 
as well as his shorter and more ornate essays. These, 
it must be remembered, were the pursuits of a boy not yet 
sixteen ! Partly for this very reason, perhaps, the reader 
was neither dazzled by the brilliancy nor convinced by 
the cleverness of Hume's undermining processes. Among 
his philosophical text-books were the dry, inadequate 
treatises of Mylne and Combe on the mind. The latter so 
exalted natural law as to supersede special providence, 
and a youth like McCosh, naturally devout, found no 
rest either in their pseudo-orthodoxy or in the negations 
of Hume. It was in consequence of his private study that 
as early as his sixteenth year he formed the plan of his 
life-work, resolving to throw himself into the metaphysi- 
cal speculations of his day with a view to preparing a 
work which would express his own dawning convictions, 
and, as he hoped, have some influence for good. Thoughts 



82 JAMES MCCOSH 

of the " Method of the Divine Government " were already- 
floating in his mind. He had no sympathetic friend in 
whom to confide, because his cousin, room-mate, and men- 
tor, Samuel, had sickened and died. Their common lodg- 
ing was in a confined, unwholesome locality, and they had 
inadequate means of heating their rooms in raw weather, 
the chimney being smoky. The promising comrade was 
seized with a sudden violent illness, from which he did 
not recover. His cousin never forgot the sad and dreary 
journey on which he conducted the remains, during a 
dark " eerie " night, over Mearns moor to deposit them 
in the graveyard of his native parish. 

It was perhaps as well that the sixteen-year-old m,gta- 
physician had no one in whom to confide his astounding 
aspirations, for the amusement with which the announce- 
ment would have been greeted by the closest friend 
might possibly have checked them. He was always sensi- 
tive to the indifference which his comrades and professors 
in Glasgow had shown toward him. But he was well 
aware that his own loneliness, and the self -introversion 
produced by it, were in no respect different from the 
experiences of all his fellows, except a very few. During 
the five years of his residence at Glasgow, sensible and 
able student as he was, not one of his professors showed 
him any attention, and being, like scores and hundreds 
of his comrades, without acquaintance in the city, he had 
no intercourse with the society of the place. This isola- 
tion of the student is, of course, characteristic of all 
institutions situated in great cities, and Dr. McCosh often 
remarked with anxiety that this was true not only of 
European but of American universities. He believed it 
to be abnormal and dangerous, calculated to quench the 



LIFE AT GLASGOW UNIVERSITY 33 

energy and embitter the spirit of a nation's scholars, and 
consequently a phenomenon of capital importance. The 
notion that a professor's duty began and ended with the 
instruction and order of his class-room, was abhorrent to 
him. He thought it the most serious problem of the 
higher education to secure the oversight and unremitting 
care of students, without espionage or any "injudicious 
interference with the liberty of the young men." In 
Princeton, at least, he was untiring in his efforts to devise 
and carry out means to this end; but he felt that his 
success was only partial. But of one thing any Princeton 
student might be sure, that, as far as Dr. McCosh was 
concerned, no aspiration, however soaring, would ever be 
the object of discouragement, and that in all probability 
half-formed purposes would rather receive an impulse 
in sympathetic encouragement. 

Moreover, as professor and president, Dr. McCosh strug- 
gled with splendid persistency to gratify the social long- 
ings of the students as far as in him lay. His house, his 
means, his family, his acquaintance, were all laid under 
tribute that no youth within the circle of his influence 
could ever say that, during his formative years, he had 
been destitute of the kind word and friendly handshake 
which he needed for his encouragement and happiness. 
In the same way the memories of Dr. McCosh's boyhood 
stimulated him to something far more than an academic 
interest in the spiritual welfare of those he considered 
as entrusted to him. There was regular preaching in 
Glasgow University, but the discourses were never inter- 
esting, and were often, from McCosh's standpoint, unsound. 
He and his intimate friends, therefore, frequented the 
city churches preferring the ministrations of three earnest 

3 



34 JAMES MCCOSH 

and devout preacliers, Brown, Welsh, and Wardlaw. But 
they had no home feeling in those churches, as they would 
have had in their own chapel, and the memories of this 
made him anxious that extraordinary care should be taken 
of the students' religious life, especially when they were 
compelled, as he believed they should be, to attend 
religious services. He thought no preaching too good for 
them, and felt that the teacher was, like the pastor, 
bound to regard in paternal solicitude both the religion 
and the morals of his pupils. 

The morals of Glasgow students reflected in all proba- 
bility those of the homes from which they came, making, 
of course, due allowance for the relaxation of disci- 
pline in the entire absence of family and social con- 
trol. In McCosh's time there were between twenty and 
thirty young men at Glasgow from the " Land of Burns," 
as they liked to call Southern Ayrshire. In the absence 
of other association they were naturally thrown much to- 
gether, and for a considerable portion of his Glasgow life 
McCosh was constant in good fellowship with them. 
Their meetings appear for some time to have been harm- 
less enough, their conversation being of familiar things, 
and their intercourse without serious blemish, though 
there does not seem to have been much seriousness, and 
frequently time hung heavy on idle hands. Toward the 
end, matters took a turn for the worse ; and, finally, at a 
meeting in the room of one of the number, it was proposed 
that they should purchase a pack of cards. Play began, 
and was continued regularly night after night for some 
. weeks. Though the stakes were small, yet they were suffi- 
cient to make gain or loss a serious matter, where all were 
of moderate means, with frugal allowances. McCosh was 



LIFE AT GLASGOW UNIVERSITY 35 

ignorant of the game, whatever it was, but before long he 
saw that there was cheating, and his losses gave him 
serious anxiety. Meanwhile, most opportunely, the 
Christmas holidays came on, and being invited to visit a 
former master in Edinburgh, he gladly accepted. An 
opportunity was thus given him carefully to review 
his whole position. As a consequence, he never again 
was willing to play cards with or without stakes, and 
came to regard them much as the Puritans and Cove- 
nanters had done ; not as they did, however, because 
their use was at that earlier day characteristic of the friv- 
olous and vicious, but because from experience he 
had discovered in himself an instinct which he feared 
might develop into frivolity, if not something worse, and 
to permit this was, he felt, utterly incompatible with the 
lofty purposes to which he had devoted himself. " It is 
one of the bitterest recollections of my life," he wrote, 
"that of those who associated together more than one 
half fell into vice of various kinds, such as drinking, 
licentiousness, and gambling, and never came to hold any 
position of importance. I ventured to tell this to one 
of our professors, and was chilled when he remarked that 
what he had to do was to give instruction in his branch 
of study, and that it was not his business to look after 
the conduct of the students." Every reader will recall 
much similar talk in our own day and country, much fine 
language about treating students as capable of self-gov- 
ernment, and responsible for their own conduct. With 
such theory Dr. McCosh never felt the slightest sym- 
pathy, believing that the formation of good habits was 
more than the half of education, and that the morals of 
the young, like their intellect and judgment, required 



36 JAMES MCCOSH 

constant attention from tlieir instructors. Within limits 
sufficiently wide he encouraged self-reliance and inde- 
pendent action, but he had no patience with the relaxa- 
tion of discipline which made idleness, deceit, and the 
easy indulgence of vicious tastes possible for the great 
majority of college students. 

He left Glasgow, having made, on the whole, very 
little impression upon his teachers and fellow-students, 
having formed few social connections, either in friend- 
ship or enmity, and without any new bonds destined to 
influence his later life. No one considered him as having 
displayed any great promise ; but as he had found no 
special encouragement or stimulus, he had experienced 
nothing destructive of his personality. He was the same 
reflecting, cautious, self-reliant person on leaving that he 
had been on entering, but with a horizon greatly enlarged, 
and with an acquired wealth of plain, homely knowledge 
of human nature. It appears as if the simple lessons 
taught by the commonplace incidents narrated above had 
been in a sense the most enduring and valuable of his 
long life, and as if the intellectual experiences of his dull 
class-room work and of his closet had been determina- 
tive of his whole career. One thing is certain, — that he 
left Glasgow with his ambition fired and his conscience 
quickened. His long intercourse with good books had 
resulted in a glowing, overpowering desire for fame as a 
philosopher. 



CHAPTER IV 

AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL. — LIFE AT EDINBURGH 
UNIVERSITY 

1829-1834 

n^HE magnet which drew young McCosh toward Edin- 
burgh, as it did many other ambitious young Scotch- 
men, was the teaching of Dr. Thomas Chalmers, then 
professor of theology in the most famous of the Scotch 
universities. At the same time, there were other power- 
ful attractions. Like a true patriot, he rejoiced in the 
ancient and beautiful capital of his nation, believing that 
with its imposing castle rock, with the picturesque moun- 
tain of Arthur's Seat which overlooks it, with the deep 
ravines which intersect it, with the quaint, historic pal- 
ace of Holyrood, the massive university buildings, the 
ancient High Street, and the modern quarters of hand- 
some dwellings, it was, all in all, the grandest city of the 
world. And this, as he sometimes quizzically said, in 
spite of the constant mists or the "eastern haar," that 
local March fog which, creeping up from the sea, searches 
the inhabitants through and through with chilliness. To 
live amid the scenes and associations of Edinburgh was 
justly felt by the young divinity student to be an educa- 
tional influence of the highest value ; for the associations 
were even more important than the natural beauties of 
the place. The city at that time was the home of many 



38 JAMES MCCOSH 

eminent men, being a literary centre wliicli rivalled Lon- 
don at its best, if, indeed, its brilliancy did not outshine 
that of any other home of English thought and letters, 
earlier or later. Fortunately we have Dr. McCosh's own 
account of how the great masters of literature and learn- 
ing impressed him: — 

Chief of these in the city was the " Great Unknown," 
as he was called, but now fast becoming known, not so 
much by his poetry, which was full of life, as by the 
wonderful novels he was then writing, which show a 
greater knowledge of human nature in nearly all its 
moods than any work in the English language, except 
Shakespeare's plays. I relished Scott because of his 
exhibition of Scottish character, which in most cases was 
perfect. In all cases his pictures of men and women 
were unostentatious and healthy, and the style was 
simple and pure. I was never introduced to him, but 
I could get quite a near view of him when he occupied 
his place as Clerk of the Court of Session. As he sat 
there he had at times little or nothing to do, and his 
countenance, though pleasant, was then somewhat heavy 
and dull. But the young barristers were proud to have 
a brief talk with him, and to hear a story from him. He 
was always willing to gratify them, and as he roused 
himself his countenance was lighted up like the morning 
sky. In his works the pictures of scenery and of life 
and character are all natural and expressive. 

We had other men, outside of the college circle, 
reflecting their glory on the students, and we were 
proud of them. There was Francis Jeffrey, who became 
a judge in the Court of Session, with his quick eyes, his 



LIFE AT EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY 39 

keen, restless expression, his somewhat affected English 
pronunciation, his fine and independent legal discern- 
ment. He was the terror of young ambitious authors, 
lest he should scourge them in the " Edinburgh Eeview." 
Though certainly not promoting genius, witness his pre- 
diction as to Wordsworth, — " This will never do — " he 
was nevertheless encouraging correct taste, good sense, 
and sound philosophy. Latterly he was a mighty favor- 
ite with Free Church people, as he defended the Free 
Church cause with great ability. We students had no 
access to these circles, but we heard rumors of them. We 
read regularly, and with great admiration, the " Edinburgh 
Eeview," "Blackwood's Magazine," and the books criti- 
cised in them. Both those periodicals held great influence 
at that time, not only over Scotland but over the three 
kingdoms, over the United States, and, to some extent, 
over the Continent. Their spirit was abroad in the very 
air, and we breathed it. 

Within the college there was a number of almost 
equally eminent men : Sir John Leslie, John Wilson 
(Christopher N'orth), and Sir William Hamilton, with 
memories of Dugald Stewart and Brown. Sir John Leslie 
was then seeking to clear up the mysteries of heat. John 
Wilson was a man of genius, and the professor of Moral 
Philosophy. He had no philosophy, but he often gave 
very fine lectures, and he was the author of " Noctes 
Ambrosianse," being the virtual editor of " Blackwood's 
Magazine" as well. He usually came into the class- 
room fresh, as if he had just dropped from the lakes and 
hills of Cumberland, where he had lived at one time, and 
the students always received him with a loud burst of 
applause. He commenced by opening his portfolio, and 



40 JAMES MCCOSH 

read from a number of scattered papers, — some of tliem 
the fly-leaves of old letters. I remember him giving a 
very stimulating lecture on the Association of Ideas in 
Imagination. 

But the most eminent man in Philosophy, not only in 
Scotland, but throughout the world, was at that time in 
E'linburgh University. I allude to Sir William Hamil- 
ton, then professor of Civil History. M. Cousin com- 
plains of the British Philosophy, that it was insular. 
Hamilton was the first to remove this reproach. He had 
studied at Glasgow, and knew and appreciated the Scot- 
tish Philosophy. He had studied at Oxford, and was 
well acquainted with the Greek Philosophy. At the 
Oxford degree examination he presented a number of 
works which astonished the professors. He had studied 
many a forgotten or obscure writer, whom others did not 
think it worth their while to look into. I remember him 
as having a manly appearance, and uttering his views dis- 
tinctly. Many of the commonplace students did not 
relish him because they could not comprehend him ; 
altogether, his expositions were too abstract for them. 
But the higher class of students hung upon his lectures 
as showing a knowledge far more extensive than that of 
Hutcheson, or Eeid, or Stewart, or Brown. 

In the theological department there was, however, the 
man whom I regard as upon the whole the greatest I 
have ever met with, I mean Chalmers. He was great as 
a pulpit orator, as the leader in Church extension and 
philanthropy, as a methodical and stimulating teacher, and 
as a man full of love and humor in social and domestic 
intercourse. He was the most eloquent preacher of his 
age, being distinguished by the philosophic depths of 



LIFE AT EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY 41 

the truths he expounded, by the great amplitude and 
expressiveness of his illustrations, and by the force of 
his manner. I embraced every opportunity of hearing 
him. I was more moved by him than by any man I 
ever listened to. He had commonly only one idea, or 
rather one principle, in his discourse, but it was a grand 
one, lying deep down in the government of God, or in 
the depths of the human heart ; and he so expounded it 
that he fixed it in the mind forever. His whole soul 
was evidently in his discourse, and, I may add, his 
whole body in action from head to foot. One Sabbath 
evening he complained to his wife that his leg was so 
sore. " No wonder," she said, " for you used it so vehe- 
mently to-day in the pulpit." 

Some refined Englishman spoke of his language as 
barbarous, and no doubt it had a rich odor of Fifeshire, 
but it was throughout massive and expressive. I believe 
he exercised a greater influence for good on his country- 
men than any minister since John Knox. He made the 
old Calvinistic creed of Scotland look reasonable and 
philosophic, generous and lovable. He will be remem- 
bered in Scotland as the deliverer from the moderatism 
of the eighteenth century, as the great promoter of Church 
extension when the population was growing beyond the 
means of grace, as the greatest defender of the spiritual 
independence and freedom of the Church when it was 
being enslaved by political patronage, and as the able 
leader out of the Church established by law. In particu- 
lar, he devised and organized that General Sustentation 
Fund, which was the main support of the Free Church 
ministers when, by their secession, they lost their state 
endowments. 



42 JAMES MCCOSH 

To us he was one of the great teachers of his age, he 
was certainly the greatest I ever studied under. He was 
methodical in his class arrangements and in the examina- 
tion of his students ; but his grand excellence lay in the 
enthusiasm which was kindled from the fire of his own 
heart, and propagated among all the young men under him. 
It may be allowed that he was not a minutely erudite 
scholar, and that his expositions of Scripture were not 
always critically correct, but he unfolded great principles 
which became the guides of our opinions and of our 
lives. He began, when minister in Glasgow, the great 
work of raising the lapsed classes who had been allowed 
to sink so low during the reign of moderatism. Not a 
few of us were sent out by him on missionary work in 
the Cowgate, and among the degraded districts of Edin- 
burgh. He sent forth the great body of his students 
bent, when they became ministers, not merely on preach- 
ing the whole Gospel on the Sabbath, but specially on 
visiting among the people during the week, on looking 
after the non-church-going, and the outcast, and on 
securing, according to Christ's command, that the Gospel 
" be preached to every creature." 

There was also in the theological department Dr. 
Welsh, sprung from a well-known Presbyterian family 
in Dumfrieshire, first a minister in a country congrega- 
tion in the south of Scotland, then called to Glasgow, 
and at that time Professor of Church History in the 
University of Edinburgh. He had earned a reputation 
as having been the biographer of Brown, the meta- 
physician who introduced the French analysis into the 
philosophy of Ptcid and Stewart. I am under great 
obligations to him. He pronounced a warm eulogium on 



LITE AT EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY 43 

one of my discourses, such as I liad never had before 
from any professor. I remember that I delivered it 
before him very sheepishly, but the students cheered 
me. He said he held his fingers in my manuscript 
counting, as he read it, the pages to the close, in the 
hope it would not end too soon. In subsequent years 
I owed my appointment to the church in Brechin to Dr. 
Welsh, who recommended me to Dr. Eutherfurd, then 
Lord Advocate. Dr. Welsh was a careful professor, but 
he did not wander into the wider fields which Hamilton 
was opening. 

Such was the state of the University of Edinburgh 
when I entered it in 1829. I worked most diligently 
and conscientiously on the lectures of the professors. 
I was moved most by the lectures of Chalmers, which 
raised me from day to day above myself and above the 
world. 

In my early Edinburgh life an incident occurred which 
led me to form a resolution which I have ever since 
kept. As I was paying my fee to one of my instructors, 
he made many professions of kindness to me. A few 
weeks after I called on him on some reason or pretext. 
On going out of the door I stood a minute or two, look- 
ing out for the next place in the college square I meant 
to go to, when I heard the professor scolding the servant 
who had let me in. " Did I not tell you I was not to be 
interrupted, and you let in that impudent fellow," he 
cried, as he imperiously threatened the man that if he 
ever again did such a deed he would be instantly dis- 
missed. I formed a resolution on the instant never 
again to call on any one unless I had business with him. 
I believe our American interviewers are often led astray 



44 JAMES MCCOSH 

in this way. I believe that our famous men often 
pose — that is, assume attitudes — when waited on by 
strangers, who do not, in consequence, get a correct view 
of their character. I believe I have carried my inde- 
pendence too far, and have avoided persons who would 
have treated me kindly, and have been of use to me. 

I found that in Edinburgh University there was not 
as much commonplace, useful study exacted as in Glas- 
gow, but the spirit of the place was literary and philo- 
sophical, and to a small extent scientific. There I 
entered on a new life. I had been five years at Glasgow, 
and was reputable in all my classes ; but I was never in 
the house of any of the professors, nor had any private 
intercourse with them. I do not blame them for this, as 
the number of students was large, and they could not 
attend to them all. In Edinburgh, the Divinity students 
were asked regularly from time to time to the houses of 
the professors, and for years before I left I had a general 
invitation from Dr. Chalmers to take supper Friday night 
or breakfast on Saturday morning with him. Here I was 
sure to meet with many eminent foreigners from the 
Continent and America, and I profited by the contact 
with them. From this time any ability I had began to 
develop and show itself. My professors and fellow- 
students appreciated me as they had never done before. 
Dr. Chalmers criticised me kindly. I was particularly 
indebted to Dr. Welsh, professor of Church History. 

In my theological course, my reading was extensive 
and promiscuous. I did not pay so much attention as I 
ought to the critical study of the Scriptures. I did not 
dive very deep into the Fathers, though I made myself 
acquainted with Justin Martyr, and admired his Platonic 



LIFE AT EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY 45 

spirit. I appreciated thoroughly the higher philosophy 
of Augustine ; I dipped into Plato, and studied Cicero, all 
for theological purposes. In modern theological litera- 
ture I read the common works which opposed or estab- 
lished the orthodox doctrines of divinity. I liked the 
works which dealt with high generalizations, such as 
Davison on "Prophecy." Butler's "Analogy" was one 
of our text-books. I profoundly pondered Jonathan Ed- 
wards, but was at times irritated by the severity of his 
system, and could never fully acknowledge as either 
philosophical or scriptural truth his denial of the free- 
dom of the will. I lightened and brightened my severer 
studies by extensive reading in Christian biography. 

I spent a considerable portion of my time in attending 
Jamieson's lectures on Natural History, and in studying 
Lyell's " Principles of Geology." I see a Providence in 
my continuing from that date to give a great deal of 
attention to the natural sciences ; such acquaintance as I 
have with them has been of great service to me since 
I ventured to become a defender of the faith. I read a 
paper on the subject of geology before a large audience in 
the University of Edinburgh. Many years after, I did a 
little service in America to the doctrine of evolution, 
which was much doubted and suspected by the religious 
public. I may claim to have been the founder of a nice 
little school of Natural History in Princeton College, of 
which Professors Macloskie, Scott, and Osborn have 
been the able instructors. 

But my taste all along was for Mental Philosophy, 
which T sometimes studied when I should have been 
attending to theology. At that time I was pondering 
the deep questions of natural law, with special reference 



46 JAMES MCCOSH 

to Combe's " Constitution of Man," which was exercising 
a great popular influence. I gave to the Theological 
Society the ribs of what in after years, when clothed in 
flesh and blood, became my work on the "Method of 
Divine Government, Physical and Moral." The most dis- 
tinguished member of the Society, who afterward became 
the not very successful Professor of Moral Philosophy in 
Edinburgh, attacked me ferociously, from what motive I 
never could determine. My spirit was aroused, and I 
defended myself with considerable pluck, and carried with 
me the students, who a short time after elected me one of 
their presidents. Henceforth I became one of the leaders 
in the theological department. In this, as in some other 
cases, I have got more good from my reverses than from 
my successes. 

There were in the University of Edinburgh a number 
of literary societies, some of a more private, and others 
of a more public character, such as the Speculative, which 
had called forth some of the great public statesmen of 
the day. I was a member of several of these societies. 
We ■ discussed the various topics with considerable keen- 
ness. In the Theological Society I twice opened the 
debate on our great Church question, in both cases having 
Mr. Henry Moncreiff, son of Lord Moncreiff, as my oppo- 
nent. On the first occasion, the debate was on " The veto 
of the people on the presentation of a licentiate ; shall it 
be with reasons or without reasons ? " I argued that the 
reason should not be required, as it would leave the 
presentation in the hands of the Presbytery, who would 
have to decide the case. Next year the question was, 
" Shall patronage be abolished ? " and I took the side that 
it should, and the election, under judicious restrictions, 



LIFE AT EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY 47 

left with the people. To this issue the Church was at 
last obliged to come. 

The war against established churches began at this 
time, and was carried on keenly by the Dissenters in 
England and the Seceders in Scotland. The theological 
students in the university took up the defence. Chalmers 
was regarded in England, as well as in Scotland, as the 
ablest defender of the churches established by law. He 
was greatly impressed with the value of the parochial 
system of Scotland as providing ministers for every one 
of the people. His students all took the same side, and 
they issued some pamphlets arguing that, while the 
Church and state were different, the one caring for life 
and property, the other for the moral and spiritual good 
of man, they yet ought to unite, and would thereby 
strengthen each other, and accomplish high and important 
ends. Most of us were eager to reform the Church of 
Scotland, that it might fulfil these high purposes, and 
especially make the whole land Christian. I agreed with 
these views ; but somehow I had a deep, unexpressed 
feeling that the time was coming when the variety of 
sects would make it impossible for any one church to be 
established. So I never wrote on the subject, nor took any 
active part in the struggle. 

We students of Edinburgh had much intercourse with 
each other in our rooms. We discussed every sort of 
subject, political, religious, philosophic, and literary. On 
all points we had opinions, and pronounced an opinion 
which sometimes was and sometimes was not of much 
value. The consequence was that we had a great deal of 
life in the theological department ; but some of us did 
not inquire into our spiritual state before God as 



48 JAMES MCCOSH 

we should have done. Yet there were times when we 
did so. 

It seems that I opened my mind fully to John Ander- 
son, with whom I was in constant intercourse. He was 
the son of a poor blind man from the Water of Urr, in 
Kirkcudbrightshire, who came to beg his bread in the 
streets of Edinburgh. Both father and son made friends 
to themselves, and the son had passed through college. 
The son was tall and gaunt, but was possessed of consid- 
erable genius, and was of fervent, if not consistent, piety. 
He took a fancy for me on account of some supposed 
independence and originality in my views. On my 
writing to him on my spiritual state, he wrote me in 
reply : 

" The truth is, I felt myself little in a capacity to answer the 
disclosure you then made to me of your spiritual state in a 
becoming manner. Neither yet do I feel myself able to do so. 
I have indeed often thought of you. I have thought of you 
with tears as a dear friend in great extremity ; and I have 
prayed for you with all the earnestness that a miserable sinner 
like myself can feel and express in behalf of one he extremely 
loves, that God may be pleased to show you His glory in the 
face of Christ crucified, to let in so powerfully upon your soul 
that you shall be made willing instantly, and be tilled with a 
determination to glory in nothing but in His Son, by whom 
the world is crucified to you, and you to this world. But who 
is this, you will say, who thus prays for me ? My dear McCosh, 
it tortures me to think that you have such reason to say so. 
We ought to have spoken of these things before, like men in 
earnest. We who sympathize with each other so largely in 
everything else, ought to have opened our minds to each other 
on this most important of all subjects, and without reserve. 
But you know how we acted, and many a pang it has cost me 



LIFE AT EDINBURGH UXIVESSITY 49 

when I think how much the spirit of the world, was in our 
intercourse, and how little of the meek and lowly spirit of the 
disciple of Jesus. You know something of my life, and you 
must remember some of my positive sins ; but I can say that 
the happiest moments are those spent in converse with God 
and in reading His Word. My hopes for eternity hang on the 
finished work of Christ. I think I have begun the divine life. 
Sometimes I am full of life and spirit and joy ; at other times 
I am dead and cold and heartless, exactly in proportion as I 
use the means and engage in my duties heartily as unto God, 
and not unto man, considering what has been done for me. I 
am a most unprofitable servant and a vile sinner. I am always 
striving to do better, but I feel every day more and more that 
I am far from what I ought to be. But I desire simply to rely 
on the aid of the Divine Spirit to enable me to work out my 
salvation with fear and much trembling." 

John Anderson and William Wilson were both my 
very intimate friends, and yet tliey were of a very differ- 
ent character. The former became a missionary at 
Madras in India, and was very energetic and successful. 
The latter was clear, judicious, and cool, and was so 
known by all his fellow-students. After being minister 
in several country places, he took charge of the General 
Sustentation Fund of the Free Church, established by 
Chalmers to support in a decent manner the ministers 
who had given up their stipends. 



CHAPTER V 

AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL. — FIRST PASTORATE. 

ARBROATH 

1834-1839 

OO busy, useful, and happy was James McCosh's 
student life at Edinburgh that he was almost loath 
to enter upon what he then believed would be his mis- 
sion, the work of the ministry. For nearly a year after 
the completion of his regular theological course, he lin- 
gered on, reading extensively in all departments of 
thought, but in particular, acquiring as thorough a 
knowledge of the physical sciences as the opportunities 
furnished by Edinburgh would permit. It is interesting 
to note at the close of the nineteenth century that at 
its opening an institution so famous as the University 
of Edinburgh furnished little or no instruction in the 
sciences of nature, and that McCosh was driven to 
extra-academic quarters in pursuit of those studies. The 
foundation he laid in this irregular way was nevertheless 
a solid one, and the acquaintance with physics, chemis- 
try, geology, and biology which he obtained by his own 
exertions in youth was invaluable in middle and ad- 
vanced age, when he came practically to deal with the 
encyclopaedia of knowledge, the classification of the 
sciences, and the proportionate importance of various 



AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL. — AEBROATH 51 

branches of learning, both as a philosopher and an 
educator. 

There was also something more than zeal for knowl- 
edge in the young theologian's lingering, — it was a certain 
hesitancy about taking the irrevocable step. Largely 
influenced by his parents' wishes, he had advanced from 
stage to stage of the course preparatory to entering the 
ministry without any special sense of being impelled by 
his own instinct or reason. Carefully trained in the pre- 
cepts of strict morality, and inspired with high motives, 
he had led a life of purity and industry throughout his 
student years, and had found himself open to the influ- 
ences of Chalmers's preaching and teaching, being far 
from averse to practical work among the lapsed classes 
in the Edinburgh slums. Nevertheless, having become 
more and more conscious of his bias toward an intel- 
lectual life and the pursuit of original investigation, 
especially in the line of mental philosophy, it was a real 
question whether he could abandon these enticing paths, 
in which he had received the personal stimulus and en- 
couragement of such a man as Sir "William Hamilton, 
for the less congenial work of a preacher and pastor, 
even though directed to the latter course by the pre- 
cepts of Chalmers. Long afterwards. Dr. McCosh, con- 
versing with a Princeton pupil about the personal 
influence of teachers, made a special reference to Sir 
William Hamilton and asked, " Do you know the great- 
est thing he ever said to me ? It was this : ' So reason 
as to have but one step between your premise and its 
conclusion.' " 

Doubtless this style of concrete reasoning was what 
had turned the scale in favor of the ministry at the 



52 JAMES MCCOSH 

critical moment of choice in 1834 He had just com- 
pleted an essay on the Stoic Philosophy, which his 'great 
philosophical master commended in the highest terms, 
and for which the University conferred on the author 
its degree of M.A., an academic distinction which was 
a very high and much coveted honor. But for all that, 
something was burning in his heart which could not be 
quenched, and the influence of Chalmers prevailed. Of 
what followed the account can be given in Dr. McCosh's 
own words. 

I was licensed by the presbytery of Ayr in the Spring 
of 1834, a member being appointed to tell me that I 
must make my preaching less abstract, and leave out 
all such terms as "transcendental," which I had used. 
My conscience told me the same thing, and I labored 
with excessive care to acquire clearness in language, 
and to avoid metaphysical statements in my preaching. 
My aim was to become a minister of a country parish, 
and I determined to make myself understood by every 
one. In my carefulness about the future, I had written 
about a score of sermons, but the greater number would 
not preach, and in the course of time I burned them. 
I never could prepare useful and acceptable sermons 
until I became a pastor, visited among my people, and 
learned their wants from themselves. Meanwhile I 
formed the resolution never to preach anything but 
the gospel as alone fitted to move and regenerate man- 
kind ; and to do this in language which old and young, 
and rich and poor could comprehend. My ideal is 
carried out in the " Gospel Sermons," which I selected 
for publication upwards of fifty years afterwards. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL. — ARBROATH 53 

I wrote my sermons with care, and committed them 
to memory. I believe that the delivery was felt to be 
stiff by myself and the people for many years. In the 
end, I had my papers before me in the pulpit, and I 
believe that my manner was more free than it had been 
before. If I had to live my ministerial life over again, 
I would read every Sabbath forenoon with as much free- 
dom as possible, and suit myself to those who wished 
instruction, while in the afternoon or evening I would 
fill my mind with the subject, and seek to stimulate the 
people. In this way, I might acquire both methods, each 
serving a good purpose. 

I preached all around, both in town and country, but 
cliiefly in the country. I had a good horse, and set out 
on the Saturday with my sermons in a saddle-bag behind 
me, preached twice on the Sabbath, and returned home 
on the Monday, the minister on one occasion giving a 
hint to me by telling his servant to boil two eggs for 
me, as I was about to travel. 

I was always received very pleasantly by the minister, 
and have very pleasing recollections of the manses of 
Scotland. At this time the "Moderate" regime was pass- 
ing away in favor of the revived " Evangelism," I made 
the acquaintance both of the moderate and evangelical 
clergy. Both parties opened their minds to me. The 
former had little or no faith in the Westminster con- 
fession, to which they had sworn, nor in conversion, nor 
in the atonement for sin. They were rankled by the 
discrepancy between their real and their avowed creed, 
and often spoke bitterly of those opposed to them. The 
latter were somewhat afraid of the people ha\ang too 
much power, were trusting to the veto law, and were 



54 JAMES MCCOSH 

not in favor of the abolition of patronage. Some of the 
best of the evangelicals were full of hope, expecting a 
new era in the Church of Scotland, and having no idea 
that it would be disestablished when reformed. This I 
confess was my feeling. 

Having no particular office, and wishing to secure the 
influence of landed proprietors, I became tutor in the 
excellent family of Mr. Graham of Meiklewood, near 
Sterling. 

Meanwhile a ministerial vacancy occurred in Kirk- 
michael, a parish adjoining my native place, by the death 
of a moderate minister of no great talent and no religious 
zeal, who had contented himself with giving sound moral 
advice on the Sabbath with a very uncertain gospel sound. 
The people, consistiug of farmers with their families, of 
village tradesmen and shopkeepers and farm-servants, 
were longing for something better, and, being unable to 
secure access to the village church, they met in the street 
on a cold evening in March and resolved to recommend 
me to the crown, which had the patronage. In order to 
assure success they further resolved to petition their her- 
itors, 1 as likely to be consulted. The whole parish, the 
whole district, became agitated. Mr. John McClymont, 
an accomplished farmer, corresponded with me, and urged 
my acceptance of the call on the part of the people. I 
resolved to stand by them, and they stood steadfastly by 
me. I got the favor of about one-third of the heritors, 
but the majority were against the popular movement, and 
against me ; among my opponents was a vain merchant 
who had been appointed a trustee by my father to look 
after the family property. 

1 The Scotch designation for the proprietors or landholders of the 
parish. 



AUTOBIOGEAPHICAL. — ARBEOATH 55 

The Tories were in power at the time, and issued the 
presentation to a rival candidate who had only one vote 
at the popular election. This was on a Friday ; on the 
Monday following, the Liberals came into power in Par- 
liament, and would certainly have given me the presen- 
tation had not the whole matter been foreclosed. There 
was some intention of vetoing the presentee, but a major- 
ity could not be got to do this. The case thus ended in 
a loss and hea,vy discouragement to the popular move- 
ment throughout the whole district. After the disruption, 
I helped to set up a Free Church in Crossbill, a village in 
the parish, and the Eev, John McCosh, a distant cousin 
of mine, partially endowed it. 

I was now anxious to have a ministerial charge. The 
first place I was settled in was the Abbey Chapel, Arbroath, 
or as it is called in these advancing days, Abbey Church, 
being led thereto by my college friend, the Eev. John 
Laird, then assistant minister in the parish church. There 
I was promised one hundred pounds a year; afterwards I 
received a little more. It was about the midland of Scot- 
land on the east coast, with very grand cliffs in the neigh- 
borhood, described by Scott in " The Antiquary ; " ^ along 
these I often walked, and from them I got a clear view 
of the Bell Eock Lighthouse, which shines so cheerily to 
save sailors from these terrible waves. 

My congregation consisted mainly of small manufac- 
turers, shopkeepers, artisans, tradespeople and laborers, 
with a considerable body of seafarers sailing upon vessels 
engaged in bringing flax from the Baltic, together with 
their families. There were also a very few from the 
higher class, such as lawyers, teachers, and doctors. I 

1 It is believed that Arbroath was the Fairport of Scott's famous norel. 



56 JAMES MCCOSH 

prepared my sermons industriously on the first three or 
four days of the week, and committed them on the Satur- 
day. The discourses were clear, full of truth, at times 
notional, — that is, full of my own notions. I really 
meant to be earnest, and the people believed me to be so. 
In looking back on my ministry, I see that I was wanting 
in tenderness. I had more of the manner of Paul than of 
Jesus or of John. Both fathers and mothers, young men 
and maidens, bore most generously with the young man 
settled among them. 

I had a parish of about two thousand people allotted 
to me, and visited from house to house, passing by no one, 
but calling on all, according to the ancient parochial sys- 
tem of Scotland. The people of all classes and of the 
various denominations welcomed my visits. I had a deep 
interest in speaking to the families. I found out whether 
they attended church, and never found fault when they 
went to some other church than mine. I remember that a 
young man felt very much caught when, after declaring 
that he attended the Abbey Church, he admitted in re- 
sponse to my question if he had ever seen me there that he 
had not, thouo;h I had ministered there for months. I fell 
in with him when he was just giving up church attendance, 
and I managed to induce him to wait on my ministry. I 
inquired especially about the children, and thus secured 
the favor of the parents and of the children themselves. 
I spoke most earnestly to parents about their children, 
and we prayed for them. I often left the mother in tears. 
I got a great hold of the sailors' wives, and talked with 
them about their husbands away on the Baltic Sea, and 
the sailors were grateful when they came home for the 
attention I had paid to their wives and children in their 
absence. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL. — AEBROATH 57 

I had at times difficult offices to perform. "When a 
sailor was shipwrecked, the people came to me to announce 
the calamity to his widow. I tried to prepare her first by 
talking about death, or reading the chapter about the 
resurrection of Lazarus. But this scarcely alleviated the 
trial. She commonly anticipated the drift of my discourse 
and would burst out, " Tell me, is my husband lost ? " I 
had to let nature take its course. I left her with her 
friends or neighbors, and came back a few hours later or 
the next day, when she could listen to me. I have at 
this moment a most vivid remembrance of these scenes, 
which were among an unsophisticated people with no 
deceit or disguises. I have a vivid recollection of an old 
man who fell dead in my arms, as I was praying with 
him. I remember how distracted I felt when I had to 
comfort a member of my church whose husband, a high 
class teacher, had committed suicide. 

As I was trustworthy, I was able to gain the confidence 
of the people, and they often unbosomed themselves to 
me. Wives told me of their trials with their drunken or 
passionate husbands, husbands spoke of their difficulty 
with their capricious wives, and parents of the wayward- 
ness of their children. I always sympathized with them 
and gave them the best advice I could. I was able in this 
way to soothe many a sorrow, and to heal wounds that 
had been long rankling. 

I organized Sabbath Schools, carefully looking out for 
competent and pious teachers. I was not particularly 
successful in addressing children, but I set up a special 
class for young men and women upwards of fifteen years 
of age. I had commonly seventy or eighty, often a hun- 
dred or a hundred and twenty, in attendance. I selected 



58 JAMES MCCOSH 

a subject, such as a bpok of Scripture which we studied, 
or a particular topic, such as prophecy, or the history of 
an era of Old or New Testament History. I prepared 
with great care for my teaching and gave information not 
always of a commonplace kind, or else I sought to offer 
wise and useful reflections. I exammed the young people 
regularly and systematically, always giving the subject a 
practical direction. In teaching such advanced classes, I 
prepared myself for my work in after years in the col- 
leges at Belfast and Princeton. I cannot recall these 
scenes without the deepest emotion. I hope to meet 
with members of these classes in heaven. On these 
occasions I got acquainted with the character of young 
men and women, and was able to deal with them 
personally. 

One day, in passing along the main street, I came 
upon a butcher who was cutting up a huge ox. I asked 
him to give me a few minutes to speak to him, his wife 
and family. His wife earnestly entreated him to do so, 
but he answered roughly that ho did not wish for such 
visits. So I had to pass on, but I whispered in his ear 
as I passed that if ever he was on a bed of sickness he 
could send for me at any hour of the night or day. A 
few weeks after, I heard a loud knock at my door about 
two in the morning, and, on attending to it, I found a 
young woman, who told me that her father, this same 
butcher, was dying and wished to see me immediately. 
In a few minutes I was at his bedside. He apologized 
for his previous rudeness, adding that I was the only 
one who ever seemed to care for his soul. I addressed 
him earnestly, and he listened keenly. He died a few 
hours after. The news of this incident spread over the 



AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL. — ARBROATH 59 

whole district, and I never afterwards had a refusal of a 
visit. 

In Arbroath we had a constellation of active young 
ministers, all of whom rose to eminence. There was 
William Stevenson, who preached the truth in a bright 
but somewhat artificial style, and who became a professor 
in the theological department of Edinburgh University. 
There was Eobert Lee, born in Berwick on Tweed, of 
whom it was as difficult to determine whether he was 
an Episcopalian or Presbyterian, as to settle whether his 
birthplace was in Scotland or England, who was as sharp 
and quick as a wagtail, and who sought, in a theological 
chair in Edinburgh, to form the character of young men 
after the fashion of Episcopacy. There was James Lums- 
den, who preached a Calvinistic creed in the language of 
the seventeenth century, who became principal of the Free 
Church College, Aberdeen, and who defended, as a preacher, 
the doctrines of the Westminster Assembly. There was 
John Laird, who preached the gospel simply and warmly, 
who was a great favorite with the common people, and 
who was asked by a large body of the servant-girls to 
perform the ceremony when they were married. There 
was another, as bright as any of them, who fell into vice, 
and I will not name him. 

Thomas G-uthrie was at that time minister of the quiet 
country parish of Arbirlot, which lay in the immediate 
vicinity of Arbroath. He was sprung from a highly repu- 
table and religious family, inhabiting the neighboring city 
of Brechin. We soon became intimate, but on one point 
we had no sympathy with each other, — he had no fond- 
ness for abstract thought, and he hated metaphysics. But 
he was very genial. We agreed on all great public ques- 



60 JAMES MCCOSH 

tions, both of religion and politics, and we acted together 
in all church matters. He lived two milps and a half 
out of town ; he always called on me when in town, and 
I spent the happiest hours of my Arbroath life in walk- 
ing out, when I was wearied with my parochial work, 
and spending a time with him and his family. He had 
a great knowledge of human nature and of mankind, and 
I consulted him on all great occasions. Indeed, he and 
Dr. McLeod were the shrewdest men I ever knew in 
foreseeing the probable issue of complicated circum- 
stances. He was ready, when I was a young man, to 
put himself to any amount of trouble to forward my 
advancement. He helped me more than any other to 
obtain positions of usefulness, and he continued to be the 
best friend I ever had beyond my own family. 

It was said of Burke, that he could not meet a common 
man for a few minutes under a shed without the man 
feeling interested in him. This language might be used 
of Thomas Guthrie. He had a pleasant word for every 
one, that is, he said something which would gratify the 
man he addressed. He was particularly fond of talking 
to farmers and their servants, males and females. The 
consequence was that he became a great favorite in his 
parish. It is a noteworthy circumstance that he was 
five years a probationer without receiving a call. At that 
time he preached as others preached, and did not preach 
better than others; but when he became minister of 
Arbirlot he let out all his heart and genius, and followed 
a course of his own. He arranged to give a discourse, 
written and committed, in the forenoon, and to have a 
meeting with the young people in the afternoon ; in the 
afternoon he was to catechise the young on the sermon 



AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL. — ARBRC ATH 6 1 

of the morning. He told me that he was never so 
humbled as when he found he could get little or nothing 
of his discourse from his country boys and girls. He 
felt that he was laboring in vain. From that date he 
changed his manner of preaching, and his mode of ad- 
dressing meetings, allowing free space for his whole 
nature, knowledge, and experience to flow out. He made 
shrewd, practical remarks, told anecdotes of what he had 
seen and heard, and used illustrations from common life 
and scenes in which the people were interested. Now 
every eye was fixed upon him as he preached, and in the 
afternoon he could get all his discourse back from his 
ploughmen and servant-girls. There was an immediate 
change in the feeling of the whole parish, and nearly every 
one, old as well as young, attended the afternoon as well 
as the forenoon service. He preached in the same way 
when he went to other places. He was not known as 
yet in the great cities. But, in the country places around, 
whenever he preached crowds gathered to have their 
hearts warmed. 

I remember as fresh as yesterday the first time I heard 
him. It was at a week-night missionary meeting, held 
at Barry, among an intelligent, old-fashioned, country 
people. He was appointed to be the last speaker, as 
nobody would leave the meeting till they heard him. 
He commenced with a plain statement, but he soon told 
a rich anecdote of a contest among the " shearers " or 
reapers who were cutting the grain, which had occurred 
over the Voluntary Controversy, at that time raging 
throughout the whole country. The story was so funny 
that the people began to laugh, and, as he continued, the 
laughing on the part of the entire audience became so 



62 JAMES MCCOSH 

oppressive that an old man of seventy drew himself up, 
holding his sides, and with some difficulty got out the 
request, " Please, Maister Guthrie, stap (stop), we can 
stand this nae langer." The speaker at once changed his 
tune, and described a shipwreck which had happened on 
their coast. The young women began to hide their 
tears, and at last the whole audience bowed their heads 
like bulrushes, with the tears flowing from their eyes. 
The sufficiently conceited student who recites this, who 
had lately left Edinburgh University, said to himself, I 
am left far behind. Here a new man has appeared, a 
new fire, which will burn over the land. 

At this moment I see him before me in the pulpit. He 
was tall, six feet two, bony and somewhat gaunt. His 
voice was loud but mellow ; he could modulate it well, 
and at times it became low and pathetic. His preach- 
ing was distinguished by two very marked features, — he 
showed amazing sense, and great masses of practical 
wisdom came out. People did not say, but they felt 
" that man knows what is what ; he knows what is in my 
heart ; he speaks to my experience, to what I have passed 
through ; he knows my labors and my troubles, and I 
feel that I can trust him and take him as my adviser." 
He was not a very deep expounder of Scripture, but in 
plain, graphic words he could make the Bible incidents 
stand before you, and make you acquainted with the 
men and women who then lived. As he brought the 
scenes before a promiscuous audience, perhaps he called 
forth deeper feeling than any preacher of his day. I 
remember sitting far back in an unobserved place in a 
church in Arbroath, and how my attention was called 
to a working man and his wife sitting beside me. I 



AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL. — AEBROATH 63 

watched their actions. The wife at first did not think 
her husband sufficiently attentive, and when the preacher 
was giving some good advice she nudged him. After 
a while the remark came from him, " I am sure that 's 
true." The eyes of both were now gazing upon the 
speaker. By and by the tears were flowing from her 
eyes without her noticing it. The husband was deter- 
mined on being manly and on not yielding to such 
womanly feeling ; but I observed that he too had to 
form an awfully strong resolution to keep himself from 
bursting into tears. As this laboring man felt, so also 
felt the nobleman, so also felt the University scholar, in 
listening to him. 

While thus immersed in my pastoral labors the follow- 
ing letter came to me very unexpectedly : 

June 20, 1837. 
As Clerk of the Kirksession of Old Grey Friars, in Edin- 
burgh, and of a Committee of that Congregation, I have been 
requested that 3'ou wQl have the goodness to preach in that 
Church on Sabbath next, the 25th inst., in the forenoon, with 
the view of filling up the present vacancy in that Church. 

I. 0. Mack. 

I felt this to be an honorable proposal. I had evidence 
that I owed it to Mr. Alexander M. Dunlop, the eminent 
church lawyer of Edinburgh. He had heard of me as a 
student, especially from Dr. Welsh. He was seeking with 
others to elevate the style and tone of preaching in Edin- 
burgh ; in other words, to set aside moderatism and revive 
evangelism. The session was particularly anxious to have 
a popular, evangelical minister to succeed Dr. Inglis, the 



64 JAMES MCCOSH 

leader of the Moderate party, who had preached to a 
small congregation in Old Grey Friars. 

Here, I may remark, that I look on Alexander Dunlop 
as one of the noblest of the men whom the Disruption 
struggle brought into prominence. I never knew a man 
of more sensitive honor or higher moral trust. He was 
the main guide of the Church in matters of law before 
the Disruption, and for years after. Seeking no remu- 
neration, or temporal honor, or aggrandizement of any 
kind, he insisted on keeping the Church consistent to its 
principles, and carefully avoiding everything mean. 

I took the whole subject of the invitation to Edinburgh 
into serious and prayerful consideration. I knew that a 
serious responsibility lay upon me, whether I accepted 
or declined : I knew that the Church had come to a 
crisis, I saw that there was a great field of usefulness 
opened to me in Edinburgh, provided I was fit for the 
charge; but I was aware of my own deficiencies. I 
knew that I was not an orator. I respectfully but firmly 
declined. Now, in my advanced years, as I review the 
whole event, I see that I did right in the decision I came 
to. I am sure that my style of preaching would not 
have kept up a congregation for a lifetime in Edinburgh. 

In the same letter in which I declined, I strongly re- 
commended the Eev. Thomas Guthrie for the office, 
stating to the council that he would greatly interest 
and attract the people, and would fill the church imme- 
diately. In my letter I said that Mr. Guthrie could 
move the people as Daniel O'Connell did, but told them 
that they would not find in him the polished speaker 
they had usually sought in Edinburgh. This language 
frightened some members of the council, for Daniel 



AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL. — ARBROATH 65 

O'Connell was at that time a great bugbear in Scotland, 
and I had to write an explanation which satisfied them. 
Mr. Guthrie was asked to preach, as I had been, but at 
once declined. In fact Mr. Dunlop had great difficulty 
in dealing with Mr. Guthrie, who was not willing to be 
regarded as a candidate, or disposed to leave his people. 
He wrote peremptorily, asking his name to be withdrawn. 

It was agreed to send down a committee to hear him 
preach. I gave a hint of this to him. He wrote to me, 
" I have a plan in my head as to fleeing not the country 
but the parish on Sabbath first." I arrested this by telling 
him that this would be as bad as Jonah's deed, in fleeing 
when called to work in Nineveh that great city. The 
deputation heard him preach in his own church and then 
in the evening in Arbroath, where he happened to offici- 
ate, and strongly recommended that he should be called. 
He wrote me, " If I am elected I will go, and I go just 
because I would then feel it to be a call of Providence 
and duty, but if it has been the Divine will, it will give 
me greater pleasure to know that the election has fallen 
on another." In spite of these remonstrances he was 
elected, and he felt at once that he had to leave his quiet 
sphere which he so loved, and to engage in a great work 
in the metropolis of his country. He said to me, "I 
will give it a fair trial, and if I do not draw the people 
in Edinburgh, I will go down to some country parish." 

When he was elected, a number of his co-presbyters, 
among whom he was a favorite, gathered around him 
and said : " Mr. Guthrie, you must change your style of 
preaching when you have to appear before an audience so 
polished as that in Edinburgh." "When I heard this I 
implored him not to alter his mode of speaking, assuring 

5 



66 JAMES MCCOSH 

him that human nature is much the same everywhere, 
and that what had moved the people of Arbirlot and 
Arbroath, would also move the people of Edinburgh. 

When he delivered his first sermon, many turned out 
to hear the unknown man from the country, who had 
never preached in Edinburgh before. He gained the 
people at once. Next Sabbath, and every Sabbath down 
to his retirement, so many people gathered that they did 
not know how to set them seated. 



CHAPTER VI 

AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL. SECOND PASTOEATE AND DIS- 
RUPTION OF THE ESTABLISHED CHUECH 

1839-1851 

TJ^ULLY conscious of his own ability, young Mr. McCosli 
was nevertheless his own severest critic. It was 
a deed of great courage, an act of tremendous self- 
denial, for a country minister in a subordinate position, 
ambitious, vigorous, and confident, to refuse the tempting 
possibility held out to him by the authorities of Grey 
Eriars' Church. In estimating his position before and 
duriQg the disruption of the Scotch Kirk, it has been 
remarked with some degree of astonishment that he never 
held a commanding position either in the universities or 
in the ecclesiastical life of Scotland. The incidents nar- 
rated in the last chapter, taken along with another to 
be told in connection with a call to an important 
Scotch professorship, which several years later he vir- 
tually dismissed before it was made, are sufficient evi- 
dence that the position he did hold was altogether of 
his own choosing, and not determined by lack of appre- 
ciation or of opportunity. In 1838, the year after he had 
been invited to present himself as a candidate in the pul- 
pit of Grey Triars, he received and accepted the crown 
appointment as minister in the Established Church at 
Brechin, a small but busy city of Forfarshire, at no great 
distance from Arbroath. This he owed to the watchful 



68 JAMES MCCOSH 

solicitude of his former teacher, Dr. Welsh. Of his labors 
in the Brechin charge, which began in 1839, he has left an 
interesting sketch. His colleague in the pastorate was 
the Eev. A. L. E. Foote, a man of sound sense and excellent 
parts : — 

I have a very vivid recollection of Brechin in Forfar- 
shire, as I first saw it when I passed on horseback over 
Burghill, on the south side, and came in view of the val- 
ley of the river Southesk, immediately below and before 
me. On the slope on the opposite side of the river, I saw 
the gray old town with its two prominent towers : the one, 
the cathedral tower built in the twelfth century by King 
Pavid I., " the sair saint for the crown," so called because 
he erected so many ecclesiastical buildings ; the other and 
older, the Bound Tower, built by Irish workmen about the 
year one thousand of our era, as I showed in co-operation 
with Mr. Black, the town clerk. Behind and beyond, a 
few miles on the north side, were the huge Grampian 
Mountains, forming a grand background. On the left 
side, were Brechin Castle (a somewhat plain building), 
and its rich domains ; and on the right side, at the base 
of the Grampians, sweeping towards the east, the rich 
plain called the Howe [or Hollow] of the Mearns. It was 
destined that in this city I should spend several of the 
most active and enterprising years of my life. 

Brecliin, with its 5,000 or 6,000 inhabitants, might be 
regarded as a fit representative of the smaller Scotch 
towns. In it were a flax mill, a bleachfield, several man- 
ufactories of linen, a distillery of whiskey, several banks, 
and ordinary shops or stores. As an upper class, were 
ministers, lawyers, and teachers, then shopkeepers, mechan- 



AUTOBIOGKAPHICAL. — THE DISRUPTION 69 

ics, dressmakers, servants and day-laborers. The great body 
of the inhabitants were hand-loom weavers, earning only 
eight or nine shillings a week, but carefully rearing their 
families. There were too many public-houses in the town 
and though the greater body of the people were sober, drink- 
ing was resorted to on all social occasions, and a number 
became victims of intemperance. 

The parish was well provided with the means of grace. 
There was the Cathedral Church, with its two endowed 
ministers, and a Chapel of Ease, which had been made a 
parish church quoad sacra. There was an Episcopal 
Church, attended by the country gentry in the neighbor- 
hood, and by the descendants of the families that had stood 
by " Prince Charlie." There was an original " Secession 
Church," which clung resolutely to the principles of the 
Old Scotch Church, and vehemently opposed Patronage 
and all other evils. There were also two other " Seces- 
sion Churches," and a " Eelief Church," shortly afterwards 
united in one denomination, all of which belonged to 
bodies which had been out of the Established Church of 
Scotland, and were now opposed to the union of Church 
and state under every form. This may seem rather too 
large a number of denominations to be in one small town. 
The ministers of different denominations had little com- 
munication with each other, but they had no quarrels. 

Keen and extreme dissenters received me gladly. I 
explained to the dissenting families that I did not mean 
to interfere with their attendance at their own places of 
worship. I devoted one day a week to the work of general 
visiting ; I devoted another day to visiting specially the 
sick, the infirm and aged. This was the method of the 
Established Church, and it was a powerful means of 



70 JAMES MCCOSH 

gaining the whole parish. Other days I wrote ; and, in 
the early stages of my miaistry, on the evenings of 
these days, I spent time occasionally at social parties; 
but far more frequently I spent my leisure in read- 
ing extensively, and often to a late hour, in litera- 
ture and in my favorite subject of philosophy. In 
the winter I paid special attention to the families in 
the town district. Having announced on the previous 
Sabbath the locality in which I meant to visit, say, Cadger 
Hillock, I found all the people waiting for me, except 
those engaged in the factories, who had to take their places 
in the works, I took down the names of all in each 
household, inquired whether the young were attending a 
day school and a Sabbath class. I spoke briefly to them, 
putting a few questions, and commonly joining in prayer. 
I appointed a meeting in the evening at eight o'clock, never 
in a rich man's house, commonly where there was an aged 
or a bed-rid person. We had usually the whole people 
of the district attending. I gave an address on some 
practical subject. The whole exercise lasted one hour. 
In this way I got acquainted with the young and the old, 
and prompted children to join our Sabbath classes, and 
those a little further advanced in life to join my class for 
the young above fifteen years of age. 

I visited the country district in the summer. After 
an early dinner, I started on horseback (I always kept a 
good stout horse), and put up at a selected farm-house, 
where the horse was sure to get a feed of corn. I visited 
all the afternoon in the district, and paid special atten- 
tion to the young and the infirm. At five or six o'clock 
I was sure to have a grand tea provided at the place at 
which I had left my horse. At half-past six the whole 



AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL. — THE DISRUPTION 71 

people assembled, and I spoke to them, often having an 
attendance of seventy or eighty. I rode home at night, 
feeling that I had spent a profitable day, and praying for 
a blessing on what had been done. When I got home, 
I often carried my reading far into the night. Take, 
as illustrating this, my visit to Barrelwell, a large farm- 
house, once a year. After breakfast I rode out to the 
farm-house. I spoke a few words privately to the 
master and mistress. I then went among the servants, 
and spent a few hours in making myself acquainted and 
conversing with them, especially, speaking to fathers, 
mothers, and children. In the afternoon, all the people 
on the farm met in the farm-house. I catechised them 
in a simple way on the Shorter Catechism, or on some 
portion of Scripture made known beforehand. After- 
wards I addressed the whole people, who might have 
amounted to sixty or seventy. 

In this way I got thoroughly acquainted with the 
people, rich and poor, old and young. I encouraged them 
to open their minds and hearts to me, especially their 
troubles, personal and household, taking care never to 
repeat what was said to me, and checking scandal of 
every kind. I tried to make the people feel that they 
had a trusty friend in me. I felt the deepest interest 
in talking to the people, and often got much knowledge 
from them of human character. 

The parochial system of Scotland was a most powerful 
means of sustaining and diffusing religion in the country. 
There is unfortunately nothing like it in America. There 
should be some substitute devised. When the disrup- 
tion of the Church of Scotland came, this method had to 
be given up, and I cannot tell how much I regretted it. 



72 JAMES MCCOSH 

The congregational system cannot possibly serve all the 
purposes of the parochial ; it leaves gaps which are not 
filled up. It would be desirable to secure, among the 
numerous denominations in America, a modified system, 
a Federation of Churches, under which the minister 
would be responsible for every family in a certain 
district, though having no power of excluding any other 
form of Christianity from entering it. It is only thus 
that according to our Lord's command the gospel can be 
preached to every creature. 

In these visitations, ludicrous incidents occurred on 
various occasions. In the parish, we had two wealthy 
women who kept a pawn-shop and lodged vagrants. I 
did not know very well how to reach them. It occurred 
to me that I should take a bold course, and ask them to 
open their house for an evening meeting. They felt 
pleased beyond measure, and spent most of the day in 
inviting their neighbors to attend. The people con- 
sidered my choice of a house as very queer, but came out 
in great numbers. On that evening they had for lodgers 
a travelling company with an enormous monkey. When 
I began to address the people, the monkey came out from 
a side room and took his place on a table exactly oppo- 
site me, whether of purpose on the part of its owners 
to play me a trick I could not find out. To every motion 
of mine, whether moving my head or lifting my hands 
or stamping my feet, the monkey made a corresponding 
motion, all with a face of deepest gravity. What was to 
be done ? I could not keep a respectful attention on the 
part of the people. The scene was inexpressibly ludi- 
crous. No one had the courage to interfere. Attempts 
were made to suppress the laughter, which were not 



AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL. — THE DISRUPTIOi^- 73 

successful. What was to be done ? The people thought 
I was well served for selecting such a house. The 
thought occurred to me to make a vehement jerk to one 
side. The monkey, in copying me, fell on the floor, and 
was carried off in disgrace by his owner. I was deeply 
moved myself, and in my address I awed the whole 
people. I left orders there, and in all similar places, 
when T visited them, that if any beggars or vagrants 
became ill I was to be immediately sent for. I was occa- 
sionally called for, and had always eager listeners, at 
times on the part of some who had seen better days, and 
who drank in the truth which they had learned in their 
younger years. 

My heart ever warms when I think of Brechin. Here 
I had the privilege of preaching the gospel from week 
to week to large congregations, and training thousands 
of young people in religion. Here I was pleasantly 
acquainted with nearly every one, and had not a few 
personal friends. Here my children were born. Here 
I buried a dear boy. The greatest gift which I got was 
my dear and excellent wife. She was the daughter (the 
second) of Alexander Guthrie, an eminent physician known 
all over the country, and a brother of the Eev. Thomas 
Guthrie. She has proved to be a most loving wife to 
me, and has constantly watched over me and my inter- 
ests. She was an admirable household manager, and 
enabled me to live handsomely at times on a small 
income. She had a good deal of the Guthrie character. 
She was characteristically firm, and did not always yield 
to me. She advised and assisted in all my work as 
minister and professor. She visited sick students and 
looked after their welfare. A hospital costing thirty 



74 JAMES MCCOSH 

thousand dollars has been erected in Princeton College, 
bearing down her name to future generations. 

During the years I spent at Brechin I had to come 
through a great crisis in the history of the Church of 
Scotland, and therefore of Scotland generally, which was 
so identified with its Church. A great question came 
to a head at this time, and I threw myself into it, heart 
and soul. There were really two connected questions 
involved. The one was the spiritual independence of 
the Church. We believed that a church enslaved by 
the state could not fulfil the high ends contemplated by 
Christ in setting up his Kingdom. We believed that the 
Church of Scotland, established by law, greatly needed 
reformation. I entered and continued in it, believing 
that we could reform it. The other question was the 
right of the members of the church to have power in 
the election of their pastors. It was in this last ques- 
tion that I took the deepest interest. 

As to the first question, I was deeply convinced that 
in order to accomplish the great moral and spiritual pur- 
poses for which it was instituted, the Church must be 
free, and not under Patrons and politicians. But some- 
how I had always a suspicion that a church fully en- 
dowed might be tempted into ecclesiastical tyranny, 
which could only be counteracted by control being given 
to the membership. I was of opinion that the Christian 
Church should at this crisis have demanded the abolition 
of Patronage out and out, and argued that it would be 
carried by the wave of popular rights which had given 
us the Reform Bill. The great body of the Church was 
not prepared to go this length. A large number of the 
ministers had little faith in popular elections, and were 



AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL. — THE DISRUPTION 75 

rather favorable to a continuance of Patronage if it could 
be properly restrained. The proposed remedy, favored 
by Chalmers and Lord Moncreiff, was to give the congre- 
gations a power of vetoing any obnoxious presentee. 

The great body of the church leaders being sure that an 
anti-patronage law would not be enacted by Parliament, 
this compromise measure was passed by the Church. We 
acted on it from 1834 to 184.3; and good was done, as the 
Patrons felt that they had to inquire carefully into the 
character of the persons they appointed. Meanwhile, cases 
occurred in which congregations vetoed the presentee, as 
in Strathbogie, and in which presbyteries refusing to 
settle with the ministers, the affair was carried up to the 
law courts. The Court of Session, by a majority of eight 
to five, decided that the Church was acting illegally, the 
minority of five containing some of the ablest judges on 
the bench, such as Lord Glenlee and Lord Jeffrey. The 
whole question came finally before the House of Lords, 
which virtually decided that the veto law was illegal. 
It now became clear that we had to separate from the 
Established Church. A convocation of non-intrusion 
ministers was held with closed doors in Edinburgh. I 
was for continuing the fight, but the meeting unanimously 
resolved, more wisely, to make a final appeal to the na- 
tional legislature. As again it declined to relieve us, we 
had no course left us but to retire. I made a motion in 
the presbytery, which virtually separated us from the 
church established by law. It was agreed between Dr. 
Foote and myself that he should go up to the General 
Assembly to take part in the formal separation, and that 
I should remain over the Sabbath in Brechin, to watch 
over the movements of the congregation. I went up to 



76 JAMES MCCOSH 

Edinburgh on Monday, and signed the protest, joining 
with between four hundred and live hundred ministers 
in organizing the Free Church. This disruption was a 
great event in the history of Scotland. I certainly regard 
it as the greatest event in my life. 

I passed through the crisis with very solemn feelings 
and with very deep convictions. On the first Sunday 
after, I spoke from the text, " But many of the priests 
and Levites and chief of the fathers who were ancient 
men, that had seen the first house, when the foundation 
of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a 
loud voice, and many shouted aloud for joy ; so that the 
people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy 
from the noise of the weeping of the people, for the 
people shouted with a loud shout, and the noise was 
heard afar off." I spoke of what we had lost by our 
giving up our connection with the state, but showed 
definitely that we could not have retained our emolu- 
ments in consistency with our principles, which we could 
never abandon. I dwelt fully on what we had secured 
in the full liberty which we now enjoyed, spoke encour- 
agingly and hopefully to the people, and exhorted them 
to go forward in the great work allotted to them. 

In the parish church we had upwards of fourteen 
hundred members. Of these, over eight hundred joined 
the Free Church movement, while about six hundred 
remained in the Established Church. I was disap- 
pointed, I confess, that more did not go with us. I 
felt keenly my separation from some who had been 
under my ministerial care, but who remained behind. 
The great body of those who were regarded by us as 
pious, of those who felt an mterest in the advancement 



AUTOBIOGEAPHICAL. — THE DISRUPTION 77 

and purity of the Church, went with us. All along there 
was a number of farmers and tradesmen satisfied with 
the state of the Church, and not willing to be burdened 
with the payment of a minister's stipend; these stuck 
closely to the state-endowed Church. There were a few 
who worshipped with us for some weeks, and then left 
us, including Alexander Mitchel, who afterwards rose to 
be a professor and a leading divine in the Established 
Church of Scotland. Those who adhered to us formed 
a happy union, and went on hopefully, subscribing liber- 
ally to our funds, and working steadily in our cause. 
On one occasion the collectors of our funds passed the 
door of a poor woman without calling on her, because 
she was so poor. She came out in an excited state, ask- 
ing if they deemed her unworthy of the Lord's work, 
and insisted upon giving her mite. 

There were painful scenes, husbands taking one side 
and wives another ; young men and maidens going with 
us, while their parents remained behind. In some cases, 
fathers threatened to disinherit their children if they 
went with us. A young woman told me that her father 
said that he would give her nothing but bread and water 
to feed on until she returned to the old Church. I be- 
lieve that in all these cases the threatened parties con- 
tinued firm, and in most cases the hearts of those who 
threatened them relented. 

I kept up my courage, and acted as manfully as I 
might. At times I had fears, but I carefully suppressed 
them, and they were immediately lost sight of in the 
midst of prevailing hopes which carried me on. Bemg 
accustomed to receive state aid, I had not so much faith 
in the willingness of the members to maintain their min- 



78 JAMES MCCOSH 

isters as I afterwards had. I did not know, when I left 
the parish church, where I should have to go. I knew 
that I could never have so large and influential a congre- 
gation as I had had in the past. One of my difficulties 
arose from the circumstance that in the diminislied con- 
gregation two ministers would not be required, and either 
Mr. Foote or I would have to retire. While I felt such 
trials as these, I did not feel it to be a trial to give up 
my large stipend, although I did realize at times that I 
had to suffer a degradation of social position. I can 
claim that in my state of greatest weakness and depres- 
sion I never thought for one instant of abandoning our 
principles, — as we expressed it, of going back into 
Egypt. 

Meanwhile, the church buildings of the United Pres- 
byterians and of the Old Light Seceders were generously 
thrown open to us, and we preached in them. We pro- 
ceeded vigorously with the erection of a new church, in 
which the congregation was comfortably housed. The 
minister of the other Free Church in town was often laid 
aside by frequent attacks of a serious malady. The con- 
gregation called me to be his colleague, and I accepted. I 
continued to minister in that church from 1844 to 1850, 
when I was called to a Chair of Logic and Metaphysics 
in Queen's College, Belfast. I accepted because I had 
long had a taste for philosophy, and because I hoped to 
advance a sound philosophy. 

The question is often put to us, " If you had foreseen 
the issue as it turned out, would you have started or 
joined the movement which led to your giving up your 
livings, and dividing the church members ? " I think I 
can answer this question with truth and candor for my- 



AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL. — THE DISRUPTION 79 

self and tlie company that went out. We were con- 
vinced of the truth and importance of the old principles 
of the Church of Scotland; we believed them to be 
founded on the Word of God, and were sure that we 
ought to act in accordance with them. We saw that 
great evils rose and reigned in the Church when it 
departed from them in the eighteenth century, especially 
in the greatly lower tone of religious life and activity, 
and the prevalence of intemperance and various forms of 
immorality. Where cases arose in which the Church was 
required to settle ministers obnoxious to the people, we 
felt that we could not yield without violating our princi- 
ples. I acknowledge that as we were doing all this we 
claimed to be the true Church of Scotland, and fondly 
believed that we would continue in our connection with 
the state. I confess that we did not foresee what was 
coming. We were led by a way which we did not know, 
which, in fact, we could not ourselves have chosen. We 
followed implicitly the light vouchsafed. Forty of those 
who had hitherto gone on with us, drew back when the 
crisis came, but the great body of us went on courageously 
and resolutely. There was no one point in the way at 
which we could honorably turn back. At every step we 
took, we saw clearly that there was no other honest 
course open to us. And now, in reviewing the path 
followed by us, we bless God because he has enabled us 
to take it. We are sure that we have been led in " the 
right way." 

The immediate result of our movement has not been 
so great as I expected. The example set by the Free 
Church of Scotland has not been followed by other 
Churches, as I anticipated ; but the leaven is working. 



80 JAMES MCCOSH 

Progress has so far been hindered by the unwarranted 
and heretical expressions of certain Free Church minis- 
ters; but an example has been set to which all state 
established churches will have to look. Were the 
example followed in Germany, and the choice of pastors 
given to the church members, we should be kept from 
those heresies which are at present coming in from that 
country. 

The efforts we had to make in defending our princi- 
ples of church freedom were very great. A number of 
us had to go, during the fight, to preach at Strathbogie. 
The presbytery there had inducted a minister against 
the will of the people. The Church had, in consequence, 
to deal with those who obeyed the civil courts, and it de- 
clared that they could no longer be regarded as ministers 
of their parishes. Certain parishes were considered as 
vacant, and we had to supply their pulpits. I was ap- 
pointed to go for a time to officiate in these parishes. 
I knew all the while that I was liable to severe penalties 
in doing so. We were pleased to see the great body of 
the parishioners standing resolutely by church freedom. 
The deputies had large and very interested audiences, 
and came back quickened in their zeal for non-intrusion. 

I was appointed one of a deputation to visit England, 
and make known the claims of non-intrusion. We went 
first to York, where the Cathedral has an overpowering 
influence, and thence to the fine old Puritan district of 
Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire, including Olney, 
the home of the poet Cowper. The Church of England 
avoided us : few of her clergy or laity attended our 
meetings, they seemed to feel that our movement did 
not favor their prospects, some of their clergymen spoke 



AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL. — THE DISRUPTI0:N" 81 

against us from their pulpits. The Methodists showed 
us the very greatest kindness, opening their churches to 
us. They felt that they had often been in much the 
same predicament as we were. The Baptists were dis- 
posed to be friendly, but we did not always get on with 
them without friction. 

I did not find the dissenting ministers of England so 
well educated as the Presbyterian ministers in Scotland, 
who are required to be eight sessions at college before 
entering their office; but the Congregationalists have 
often men of great natural gifts. They complained much 
of the superciliousness of the Episcopal clergy towards 
them. They favored our movement because it seemed 
to hasten on the disestablishment of the English Church. 
Their speakers at times expressed this strongly. This 
we felt to be awkward, as we were at that time in favor 
of an established church if we could have it in our own 
way, that is, free from state control. I had frequent 
and anxious conferences with the Congregational minis- 
ters as to church polity. 

I observed that a number of their younger ministers 
were acquiring an excessive admiration of Thomas 
Carlyle, who was becoming the popular favorite. I have 
never copied him, but I have always maintained that 
more than any other author for two centuries he added 
to the strength and directness of the English tongue. 
Some of our young preachers made themselves ridicu- 
lous by imitating him, and speaking dogmatically with- 
out having the weight of Carlyle's sentiments. 

1 noticed that in the social circles of non-conformist 
ministers following Robert Hall, there was an immense 
amount of smoking ; this I was led to observe because 

6 



82 JAMES MCCOSH 

scarcely any minister in Scotland dared to indulge in 
the practice at that time. 

Among Dr. McCosh's papers were found letters to 
him from Chalmers, Cunningham, and Guthrie, which 
show that he was a trusted member of the inner circle 
which carried the Free Church movement to a successful 
conclusion. From these letters the editor has selected 
one of Guthrie's, which throws a flood of light upon the 
temper of those fearless champions of ecclesiastical 
liberty. It is as follows : — 

Edinburgh, 21 October, 1842. 

Mr DEAR Sir : . . . "We have had a ver}^ long meeting to- 
da.y, and saw more daylight on the subject of the convocation 
than I had yet seen. There is no difference among us here 
as to principles, as to our resokite determination at all 
hazards and risks to maintain our ground, and set at naught 
and treat as waste paper the hostile invasions and deci- 
sions of tlie civil courts. But there has been and is con- 
siderable difference of opinion what besides that it is the duty 
of the Church to do since the late Auchterarder decision. 
Some of us entertain very decided opinions about the unlaw- 
fulness of the Church continuing in connection with a state 
which insists on Erastian conditions, and draws the sound 
of persecution against the reclaiming Church. Our idea of 
the Church's dut}- is this, that on many accounts she should 
not rashly' proceed to dissolve the connection, but should go 
to the government of the land, explain how the terms in 
which she was united with the state have been altered to 
all practical purposes by the late decisions, how the compact 
has been therein violated, how she cannot continue to admin- 
ister the affairs of the Establishment unless she is to be free 
from invasion, and protected against persecution, and that, 



AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL. — THE DISRUPTION 83 

therefore, unless the government and legislature shall 
within a given and specified time redress the wrongs we 
complain of, we shall dissolve the Union, declare it to be 
at an end, and leave all the sins and consequences at the 
door of an Erastian and oppressive state. There is some 
hope in this way. Were such a determination signed and 
sealed by each man for himself, sa}- some hundred ministers, 
the government would be compelled to interfere and grant 
redress of wrongs, rather than run all the risks to the civil 
and religious institutions of this country which a refusal 
might bring with it. 

There are others here, such as Brown and Elder and Begg, 
who are not prepared to take this step, — their idea is to 
remain in the establishment till driven out, doing all the duties 
that belong to them. Well, our manifest duty under the 
idea of remaining is to purify the Church of Erastianism, 
and preserve it from it, — so they agree that at this convo- 
cation the ministers should resolve to admit no Erastian into 
the Church, to license no Erastian student, to translate no 
Erastian, and to thrust out of the Church without an}- mercy 
ever}' man and mother's son that avails himself of their 
Erastian decisions, acknowledges these as binding the 
Church, or would in any wa}' apply them in the face of oui* 
own laws. 

We who would dissolve after due warning can have no 
conscientious objection to continue for a time doing this 
work of excision. At the convocation we may agree on 
that ground, but we still think our own plan the best of the 
two, — it may secure a free and open establishment. The 
other plan must inevitably and certainly though slowly lead 
to the casting out of our party ; it can in no case gain the 
object we may gain, — a pure establishment. We must cast 
out of the Church by this second proposal all that preach for 
or in any waj' by open acts countenance the deposed [minis- 



84 JMIES MCCOSH 

ters] of Strathbogie. We must cast out of the Church the 
Moderate majorit}' of the late synod of Aberdeen, and in less 
than two years we have all the Moderates declared to be no 
longer ministers of the Church of Scotland. The}' [then] 
constitute themselves into laio presbyteries, depose our clergy 
within their bounds, declare their parishes vacant, ordain 
ministers of their own on the presentation of heritors, and 
then claim the stipends ; they are given them. So, without 
the gleam of a bayonet, the ring of a musket or the appear- 
ance even of a law functionary, we are most quietly deposed 
and put down. This plan — and if we are to remain in the 
Church for an}' time we are bound to take it — this you see 
cuts us down in detail, disposes of us most quietly and 
peacefully for our opponents. By this plan we are most 
sure to be stripped in less than half-a-dozen years of our 
temporalities, and then we produce no effect on the land, on 
the government, on Christendom, or on an ungodly world 
by bearing the noblest testimony ever borne for the truth. 
I believe the bold course would save the Church, — under 
God, I mean, — and if it did not, men could not say we 
died struggling for a stipend. If it did not, the history of 
it would fill the brightest page in church history. It would 
do more to recommend religion as a vital, eternal principle 
than all the sermons we will ever preach. 

I pray you, turn over this subject in your mind, and talk 
of it with your friends, and let us pray that the Lord would 
bring us all to one opinion and that is sure to be right. 

Unless the last and lowest step is taken, some of us can- 
not remain in the degraded and dishonored Church. I 
would feel it to be committing fornication with the kings of 
the earth. In haste 

Yours Ever Truly, 

Thomas Guthrie. 



CHAPTER VII 

AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL. — MEN AND SCENES OF THE 
DISEUPTION 

1843 

'TPHE reader of the preceding pages must have re- 
marked that the pre-eminent characteristic of 
James McCosh was earnestness. Whatsoever his hand 
found to do, he did with all the might of a vigorous 
frame, a powerful will, and a strenuous soul. As a 
student, his labors were incessant ; the time-honored 
curriculum being too narrow for his comprehensive mind, 
his lectures were richly supplemented by his wide read- 
ing, and his Christian zeal was quickened by regular 
missionary work among the outcast. As a hard-working 
country parson, ordering his pastoral work on the best 
models, exhorting his people in season and out of season, 
braving all weathers on his faithful horse to visit the 
sick and dying, shirking neither poverty, dirt, nor disease 
in the cure of souls, he nevertheless, by the systematic 
use of every hour, found time for society, study, and 
contemplation. Wisely shunning the distractions of life 
in a great capital during his formative years, his intellect 
ripened as his experience widened. 

It was his fortune to live when great moral questions 
stirred Scotland to her deepest depths and it was sig- 
nificant of great strength that amid all the attendant tur- 
moil and discussion of a national movement he yet found 
time to continue the philosophical studies which had 



86 JAMES MCCOSH 

been his chief pursuit as a student. In these com- 
bined occupations was developed the metaphysical sys- 
tem which dominated his mind to the end, a system 
which asseverated the worthlessness of all speculation 
unrelated to reality, and found its most important prob- 
lems in the sphere of general experience. As will be 
seen in the event, it was amid the throes of the disrup- 
tion movement that the scheme of his first important 
philosophical work took final form, although he had 
dimly foreshadowed it while yet in Edinburgh. 

The Church of Scotland long maintained that in her 
spiritual affairs, namely, discipline, worship, and admin- 
istration, she had, through her assemblies, supreme 
authority. This claim she had been able to assert with 
various degrees of success, almost completely from 1560 
to 1606, and again from 1638 to 1653, when Cromwell 
suspended the assemblies for political reasons. After 
the period of war and confusion attendant upon the 
Eestoration and Eevolution, she asserted these rights 
once more, and in 1690 regained them to a considerable 
extent ; but in 1712 the Act of Queen Anne restored 
the system of lay Patronage, by which the state, through 
its agents, virtually appointed the parish clergy, and in- 
ducted them into their respective charges. For seventy 
years and more the succeeding assemblies strove for 
redress of this grievance, but in vain. Finally, however, 
toward the close of the century, the majority of the 
clergy, that is, the " Moderates," became indifferent to 
what the few ardent and historical minds stigmatized by 
the erroneous term of Erastianism, by which they meant 
the arrangement between Church and state established in 
the east Eoman empire, whereby the jurisdiction of the 



SCENES OF THE DISRUPTION 87 

former in spiritual matters is made subordinate to tlie 
secular authority. In consequence, therefore, it was for a 
time only the remnant of Scotch Presbyterians which 
maintained more or less completely the primitive and his- 
toric doctrine of ecclesiastical supremacy in ecclesiastical 
affairs, or, as they designated it, the Headship of Christ. 
Many of these dissenters felt the bondage of state control 
to be so intolerable that they seceded from the estab- 
lishment, and formed various voluntary sects, which 
remained distinct from each other, either for minor 
doctrinal or for social reasons, the most persistent and 
logically consistent of them all, the Covenanters, being 
composed for the most part of very humble folk, who 
felt they could exercise more influence by witnessing in 
complete aloofness for the purity of the faith as set forth 
by Knox and Melville, than in any other way. Although 
these seceding bodies were in the aggregate very respect- 
able in point of numbers, and very influential in point 
of intelligence, yet, nevertheless, by far the largest por- 
tion of the Scotch people continued in the Established 
Church down to the date of the Brechin pastorate, which 
was described in the last chapter. But as early as 1830, 
when the evangelical movement began to be strong 
within the Church, agitation on the question of lay 
Patronage began again, and in 1834 the " Moderates " had 
so far lost power that the assembly passed an act declar- 
ing that no pastor should be intruded upon a congrega- 
tion against the will of the people as expressed by a 
majority of the heads of families in the parish. In 1838 
the attempt was made at Auchterarder to disregard this 
rule ; the case was carried to the civil courts, and was 
decided adversely to the Act of 1834. An appeal was 



88 JAIklES MCCOSH 

taken to the House of Lords, and that body, in 1839, sus- 
tained the decision of the lower court. Meantime, in 
1838 the assembly reasserted the position of 1834, set- 
ting it forth more fully and vigorously than at first, and 
certain parishes, like that of Strathbogie, defied the law. 
In 1842 the assembly, having carefully noted the ex- 
treme public agitation, sent up a protest to the govern- 
ment, complaining of state interference in ecclesiastical 
matters, and asking for the abolition of lay Patronage. 
Early in 1843 their agent was informed that the govern- 
ment would not grant redress, and in March a final 
appeal was made, this time to the House of Commons. 
It was rejected by a large majority, and on May 18 of 
the same year, at the next meeting of the assembly, the 
non-intrusion members to the number of two hundred 
declared their hopelessness of obtaining redress, and their 
intention to withdraw. On Tuesday the 23rd, an Act of 
Separation was signed by three hundred and ninety-six 
ministers and other ecclesiastical officials, and the number 
rose by rapid stages to four hundred and seventy-four. 
These devoted and fearless men thus resigned their 
places, and with them their incomes as far as paid by 
the state, a sum amounting to upwards of half a million 
dollars. To his share in these eventful proceedings. Dr. 
McCosh has already referred in his autobiographical 
notes. In what follows he describes the scenes in those 
districts where he labored, and displays without inten- 
tion the gain to his own character which he secured by 
participating in them: — 

I am not to give a general account of the disruption 
in the Church of Scotland, such as we have in Hanna's 



SCENES OF THE DISRUPTION 89 

" Life of Chalmers," in Buchanan's " Ten Years Conflict," 
and in the " Life of Dr. Guthrie," by his sons David and 
Charles. I am simply to give a picture of the scenes 
through which I had to pass in a country district. But 
as I would do so, the constellation of able and excellent 
men who led us stands conspicuously before me, and I 
must call attention to them. 

Most conspicuous among them is Thomas Chalmers, 
the grand orator, unsurpassed in his day in Scotland, the 
disinterested philanthropist, and, I am inclined to add, 
the broad-minded philosopher. Since Knox, who was 
the greatest statesman among the reformers, no man has 
exercised so powerful an influence upon the religious 
opinions of his countrymen as Chalmers. There is the 
massive logical theologian of the Calvin type, William 
Cunningham, setting forth religious doctrine in powerful 
and definite terms, and assailing error as with a battering- 
ram. There is the subtle practical leader, Eobert Smith 
Candlish, with more of what G-eorge Buchanan calls the 
'perfervidu7n ingenium Scotorum (he had both the perfer- 
vidum and ingenium) than any man I ever knew. These 
were the three mighty men in the host. There is the 
gentlemanly, the graceful and politic Eobert Buchanan, 
who guided the Church through its difficulties in a states- 
manlike manner. Taller by a head's length than the 
others, there is Thomas Guthrie, the pictorial preacher, 
who every five minutes made his audience burst with 
laughter, or melt in tears ; who showed at the same time 
amazing common-sense and deep knowledge of human 
nature. There is the tribune of the people, James 
Begg, ready, in clear and ringing language, to defend the 
principles of the ancient Church of Scotland. It is won- 



90 JAMES MCCOSH 

derful that tliese men, so different in their temperament, 
should liave so agreed in holding the same principles, 
and in conducting the great movement. 

There were equally devoted men among the eldership 
and among the laity. I cannot name them all. Two 
are conspicuous. There is Alexander Dunlop, the man 
of the keenest sense of honor I ever knew, who in the 
days of his flesh fought a duel, and in the days of his 
reformation as legal adviser of the Free Church kept her 
on the straightforward, consistent, and honorahle course. 
There is the stone mason, Hugh Miller, the man of 
genius among us, who, without a teacher, had trained 
himself to high science, and to expound it in perfect 
English, who maintained throughout the noblest inde- 
pendence, and who devoted his mature life to the defence 
of the Free Church, which he conducted so effectively in 
able articles in his paper, the " Witness," as to constrain 
all men to respect her. The aristocracy and the proprie- 
tors of the soil as a whole were hostile or looked askance, 
but there were a few, such as Fox Maule (afterwards Earl 
of Dalhousie), the Marquis of Breadalbane, Makgill- 
Crichton, and Hogg of Kirkliston, who resisted all the 
prejudices of birth and rank, and supported those who 
were fighting the battle. 

All over Scotland there was intense eagerness, but, after 
all, of a quiet description. Sometimes, but very rarely, 
the feeling was excessive. It was so, for instance, on one 
occasion when at a public meeting in my church the 
orator was graphically describing the forced intrusion of 
unfit ministers into a parish. A man, standing upwards 
of six feet, rose in the church, and cried, " Let us rise," 
but he met with no response. Still, there was deep feel- 



SCENES OF THE DISRUPTION 91 

ing. Servants were afraid of losing the favor of their 
masters or mistresses, farmers were afraid of being cast 
out of their farms by their landlords ; yet deeper than 
these was a strong resolution to hold by principle. For 
myself, I was quietly but deeply moved as I walked 
about among the parishes. 

The Grampian Mountains, running from northeast to 
southwest, cut Scotland in two. The Eomans could 
never cross that range ; they were driven back at the 
battle of the Grampians spoken of by Tacitus. In my 
parish there were the remains of a Eoman camp, which 
gradually disappeared in the progress of agriculture, the 
stones being used to build houses and fences. The place 
might as well be the scene of the great battle as dozens 
of others which have claimed it. The region which could 
not be conquered by the arms of the Romans was gained 
by the followers of the Cross, who planted churches in its 
wildest fastnesses. 

The road from the lowlands led up a very pleasant 
valley, through which flows a clear and lively stream, the 
river ISTorth Esk. At the top there is a lake, sheltered by 
rugged mountains, and a waterfall ; and the parish is called 
Lochlee. The slopes of the glen are covered with heather, 
rising out of which are rocks and graceful groups of 
birches. The inhabitants are chiefly sheep farmers and 
their shepherds, with their sheep and dogs. They are a 
hardy race, with a spirit of independence. It is a pleas- 
ant place for privileged sportsmen, who shoot grouse and 
deer on the upper heights, for tourists and summer so- 
journers, who, however, cannot easily find accommodations, 
as the landlord does not wish the game to be disturbed. 
Often have I ridden or walked up and down that valley 



92 JAMES MCCOSH 

to get refreshing when I was weary, but more frequently 
to preach to the people, or address them on the freedom 
of the Church. The whole land belonged to Lord Pan- 
mure, who never went to any church, and was resolutely 
opposed to the whole Free Church movement. 

The sphere of superintendence allotted to me by the 
General Assembly lay in the very heart of the Grampians 
at their eastern end, and in the wide and rich country 
lying below on the south, including the fertile " Howe o' 
the Mearns." It was a part of my office to see that the 
people who adhered to the Tree Church should form a 
congregation, and have churches built for them. The 
people had for years been favorable to the principle of the 
Church's freedom, being instructed by their former minis- 
ter, the Kev. Kobert Inglis, and led by his brother, Mr. 
David Inglis, a very courageous and resolute farmer. 
The Eev. Eobert and I often went up the glen to preach 
and speak to the people. 

In order to explain and defend our cause, a meeting 
of the parishioners was called for a certain day in a 
Masonic Lodge, where it was supposed that the landlord 
could not touch them. I was invited to go up and address 
the people. Alongside of me as I rode was the agent 
of Lord Panmure, who went up to awe the tenantry 
and their dependents. Often did we pass and repass 
each other, I on horseback, and the factor in his carriage. 
The people were evidently very anxious when they saw 
the factor, and left the speaking mainly to me ; but they 
kept firm and determined, and passed resolutions in favor 
of spiritual independence and non-intrusion. One of the 
most trying circumstances in the whole contest was that 
Lord Panmure's fa<Jtor was the uncle of the two brothers 



SCENES OF THE DISRUPTION 93 

Inglis. The people kept their position, and made no 
disturbance of any kind, but were in constant fear of being 
driven out of their farms. 

After the disruption, there was a great difficulty in 
finduig a place in which to worship; but Mr. David 
luglis built an additional room to his shepherd's house, 
believing that the landlord could not interfere. I remem- 
ber preaching there to nearly the whole parishioners, who 
were much moved by the scene. The position was main- 
tained till the death of Lord Panmure, when his son, the 
Honorable Fox Maule, one of the fast friends of the Free 
Church, erected a very handsome church where there 
meets every Lord's Day a considerable congregation. 

With this glimpse at the movement in the heart of the 
Grampians let us next pass along at their foot. 

Menmuir lies at the base of the Grampians, five miles 
northwest of Brechin. One market day I was walking 
along the streets of our city, when a decent man, a shoe- 
maker, came up to me, and, lifting his hat, addressed me, 
" I hear of your doing good elsewhere ; why do you not 
visit our place ? " I asked him where he lived, and he 
told me, " Tiggerton, in the neighborhood of Menmuir." 
He assured me that there was a desire among a number 
of people, and especially on the part of his wife, to have 
the gospel preached to them, which they felt was not 
done in the parish church. I told them I was willing to 
go out next Sabbath evening, and asked whether there 
was any house in which I could speak. He replied that 
he knew of none. " Notwithstanding," I said, " you may 
expect me." After preaching twice at home, I drove out 
in a carriage which a lady lent me. I found fifty or 
more people assembled on the roadside. I took the horse 



94 JAMES MCCOSH 

out of the carriage, and used the vehicle as a pulpit. I 
was in earnest and the people were in earnest. I believe 
the man who asked me to go out was converted that 
night, and all the people were deeply impressed by the 
scene. I announced that I would be with them the fol- 
lowing Sabbath evening. I found them assembled in the 
heart of the village, on an artificial mound, which, in ages 
past, had been the mote or judgment seat of the baron 
who had the power of "pot and gallows ;" that is, of cast- 
ing the supposed criminal into a pool and drowning him, 
or of hanging him on a tree. I stood at the foot of the 
mound and preached to the people above me. 

When I was about to commence the service, a fine- 
looking young man came up to me, his voice almost 
choking him, saying that he was forester to the Laird of 
Balnamoon (the proprietor of the land), who had bid 
him tell me that if I did any ill I would have to answer 
for it. I told him that he had done his duty to his 
earthly master in a modest and becoming manner, and 
I invited him to stay and see if I did any ill, and to 
listen to any message his heavenly Master might have 
to give him. I never saw a man more relieved when I 
spoke to him in this way, and he declared firmly and 
joyfully, "I am a Free Church man, and will worship 
with you whatever my master may do." On the follow- 
ing Sabbath a village carpenter, William Christie, threw 
open his shop to us, and I preached from time to time in 
it. He and his daughters, who were very accomplished 
women, persevered. Meanwhile the carpenter was an- 
noyed by the local factor of the Earl of Fife, who was 
the proprietor of the ground, and was told that he might 
lose his shop next year. It ended in the daughters going 



SCENES OF THE DISRUPTION 95 

up to London, where they had friends, and they reached 
a good social position. 

Being in Edinburgh, I thought it proper to call on the 
legal asrent of the Earl of Fife. I told him how thincfs 
stood. He listened and said little, but told me he would 
see me soon at Brechin. Not long after, this gentleman 
sent me word from the hotel in Brechin that he wished 
me to go out with him to Menmuir. I mounted my 
horse immediately, and rode alongside of him to the 
parish. He had with him in the carriage the local factor 
and a surveyor, a devoted Free Churchman, who was like 
to burst with joy at my success and the humiliation of 
the factor. The Edinburgh lawyer drove me to a very 
central spot in the district, and bade the surveyor mark 
out a few acres for us and give it to us with a certain 
privilege of cutting wood for the manse. We built the 
church and an attached manse. The people called an 
excellent minister, and there is a fine congregation there 
at this day. 

Many years after, I visited the place and preached in 
the church. I had an enormous audience. Some men 
and women had walked ten or fifteen miles to revive old 
scenes. There were fathers who came up to me at the 
close of the service with their sons and daughters, and 
placing them before me, bade them look carefully in my 
face, and never forget the man who had guided them in 
the great movement which led to the building of that 
church, to the gathering of the congregation, and to the 
good which had been done. 

The Laird of Balnamoon, at the time when I was 
working in the district, was on the Continent. When 
he came home he inquired into the state of things, and 



96 JAMES MCCOSH 

showed that he had no resentment by asking me to dine 
with him, which I cheerfully did, and became acquainted 
with his estimable daughters, the descendants of an old 
Episcopalian and non-juror family. During those excit- 
ing times, while I spoke strongly against the enslaving of 
the Church, I took care never to say a disrespectful word 
against a master in the presence of his servant, or of a 
landlord on the land of his tenants. 

Within two or three miles west of Menmuir there was 
a case of peculiar hardship. The Established Church 
minister had contracted debt. His creditors, anxious to 
get payment from his stipend, would not allow him to 
resign. He remained in his charge, fretting like a 
chained dog, ever denouncing the Established Church 
and praising the Free Church. I called on him, but had 
little to say to soothe him. "With his consent I visited 
among his people, and a number of them joined the 
Menmuir Free Church. Busy man as I was otherwise, I 
visited from house to house through all that district. 

In the parishes I have named I had a part in forming 
the congregations, and in building the churches. There 
were other places which I had to visit, and for which I 
had to provide supplies of preachers, which was no easy 
work. These were Laurencekirk, Fordoun, Drumlithy, 
Stonehaven. I kept a horse, and at times rode thirty 
miles, and preached two or three times in one day. I 
preached where I could get a roof to cover me, at times in 
the open air, once or twice in a village ball-room. It was 
very stimulating to ride along in the consciousness that 1 
was promoting a good cause, through the rich valley of the 
Mearns, with the huge Grampians above me, and to meet 
the farmers and shopkeepers, with their servants, male 



SCENES OF THE DISRUPTION 97 

and female, to advise with them and encourage them, they 
and not I doing the principal work. I preached in places 
of which I believe I may say truly that the pure gospel of 
Jesus Christ had never been proclaimed there before. In 
the Middle Ages the truth had been mixed with the 
grossest superstitions. After the reformation. Episcopacy 
had set forth the Church and church ordinances rather 
than Christ. When prelacy was driven out, the Presby- 
terian Church took the form of moderatism, the proper 
product of Patronage, rather than evangelism. 

In no place visited had I more pleasure than at Fordoun, 
where, as I recalled, the gospel had been introduced by 
Saint Palladius in the fourth century. When there I 
lived with Mr. Burnett, of Monboddo, in the immediate 
neighborhood. He was a grandson of Lord Monboddo, 
one of the most illustrious judges of the Court of Session, 
and perhaps the most erudite Scotch metaphysician, next 
to Hamilton. The judge was noted for his eccentricities 
both in opinion and conduct, declining to ride in a car- 
riage when he went to London, but riding on horseback, 
dining after the manner of the Eomans, and so far £^ntici- 
pating Darwin in holding that men had originally tails. 
His grandson was also distinguished for his ability and 
his eccentricity, but still more for his consistent piety. 
He guided the people in the formation of the congregation 
and the erection of the church. 

Fettercairn lies at the base of the Grampians, immedi- 
diately above the Howe o' the Mearns. Though I had 
taken some part in the disruption struggle, yet it was 
carried on very much by the people themselves ; farmers, 
shopkeepers, and others, all panting for the reformation of 
religion. It was the policy of the Free Church to dispense 

7 



98 JAMES MCCOSH 

the sacrament of the supper on the same Sabbath as that 
on which it was wont to be in the parish church. Fetter- 
cairn was the first place in which we administered the 
Communion. Mr. Inglis and I went to the place on a 
Saturday, where a congregation of several hundred met 
us. We could not get a house in which to preach and 
dispense the sacrament. At last a poor woman, who had 
a small piece of ground leased to her for a year, said, " I 
will lose my field, but I give it to the Lord." They raised 
a small awning over the head of the minister, and the 
people stood or sat on stools in the green field. At the 
close of the service I requested those who wished to join 
the church to remain and give me their names, and two 
hundred and thirteen members did so ; this m a district 
not thickly populated. Among them, a fine-looking young 
man came to me, wishing me to put down his name, 
adding, " I will have to suffer for this as you have done." 
" How will you have to suffer ? " I asked, He replied, " I 
am Sir John Gladstone's head gardener, and he has written 
me, " You will go to the parish church next Sabbath." 
" And how have you answered ? " I asked. He replied, 
" Sir John, you have been a kind master to me, and what- 
ever happens I will not forget your kindness, but this is a 
matter of conscience between me and my God; next 
Sabbath I go to the Free Church." He then introduced 
to me a remarkably decent middle-aged woman, saying, 
" This is Sir John Gladstone's housekeeper, and she too 
has been ordered to go to the parish church next Sabbath." 
I asked her what she meant to do and she said, " I am 
not so good at the pen as the gardener," and she had 
bidden him write in his letter that she was to act as he 
did. 



SCENES OF THE DISRUPTION 99 

On the Sabbath I preached in the green field to a 
thoughtful, deeply-impressed audience of hundreds of men, 
women, and children who never forgot the scene, as I 
have never forgotten it. It was a beautiful clear day in 
June, — all the Sabbaths, it was remarked, were fine in 
that disruption summer and autumn, so that, being as 
yet without churches, we could preach, as most of us 
had to do, in the open air. Above me were the lofty 
Grampians ; before me was an audience with earnestness 
on their faces, such as I never saw before in any congre- 
gation. I forget what I said, but I remember that I never 
addressed a congregation under such deep emotion. 

In the course of some weeks a gentleman living at a dis- 
tance said with an oath, " I do not care what becomes of 
either of the kirks, but if you give me my money I will 
sell my little property to you." This we did, and the people 
proceeded with the building of the church. When they 
came to lay the foundation-stone, a large company, esti- 
mated at eight hundred, gathered from the district ; Sir 
John, the father of W. E. Grladstone, had meanwhile come 
from Liverpool to his country-seat. When the people 
were assembling, he rode through and through among 
them, speaking to no one and no one speaking to him. 
Every man in the meeting lifted his hat as he passed 
him, and every woman gave him her lowest courtesy. He 
went home to his castle and wrote to Sir James Graham, 
the Home Secretary, who had driven us out of ©ur 
churches : " We have committed a great mistake. I have 
passed through the people laying the foundation of their 
free church. I saw among them the great body of my 
best servants and tenants." Certain it is that Sir James 
Graham, in his place in the House of Commons, as re- 



100 JAMES MCCOSH 

ported in the " Times " newspaper, said : " I have com- 
mitted the blunder of my life in allowing these people to 
he driven out of the Church of Scotland." 

Every week or so I rode up eleven miles to see this 
people. One day I passed on the road a scholarly-look- 
ing gentleman, evidently not belonging to the district, 
walking thoughtfully along the public road. At the first 
farm-house I came to I asked who this gentleman could' 
be. " Oh," they said, " that is Sir John Gladstone's 
clever son." The people of the place had already dis- 
covered his ability. My father-in-law, Dr. Alexander 
Guthrie, was the consulting physician of the family, and 
often spent days at Fasque when there was serious 
illness in the family. He described William Gladstone 
as spending a great part of his summer in reading Blue 
Books, and marking passages carefully to prepare for the 
parliamentary work of the following winter. He was 
astonished to find Sir John explaining his business to his 
son William when yet a boy, and seeming to take his 
advice. 

Sir John, I may remark, was reckoned by his contem- 
poraries as one of the shrewdest merchants of Great 
Britain. It was said that when he bought shares in a 
company it went up five per cent, and that when he sold 
out it went down ten per cent. The story went that he 
looked sharply after both worlds. He would play at 
cards till nine o'clock at night, when he ordered all the 
cards to be put down on their face, then summoned all 
the servants to family worship, taking care that no one 
was absent. When the worship was over his company 
took up the cards, and finished the game. 

One day, as I was travelling along the road, I stepped 



SCENES OF THE DISRUPTION 101 

into a fine new Episcopal Chapel which Sir John was 
building. While there Sir John came in with another 
gentleman. Being old and deaf he was not aware how 
loud he was speaking, as I overheard him saying, " We 
would have gotten on very well in this district had it not 
been for a young fellow of the name of McCosh who has 
very much troubled us." I had to restrain myself from 
bursting into laughter. It is proper to add that when 
a young man of high character was settled as minister 
of the Eree Church, Sir John within a few weeks of his 
ordination asked him to dinner. 

A number of years after, the Duke of Argyll asked 
me, being in London, to dine with him on a certain day, 
saying he would introduce me to Mr. Gladstone. Un- 
fortunately, an Smeute rose in the manufacturing district 
of England, and Mr. Gladstone, being Prime Minister, 
was not able to come to the dinner. Had he been 
present, I would have asked him whether he remembered 
the event at Fettercairn, and whether it had any influence 
in leading him to disestablish the Irish Church, as he 
saw how a congregation could support its minister with- 
out state aid. 



V, 

CHAPTER VIII 

FIRST EPOCH OF A LIFE-WORK 

1850-1868 

A MONG the other ambitions of James McCosh when 
a student at Glasgow was that of becoming an 
author. From his memoranda it appears that already 
there were deep and undefined thoughts in his mind, 
concerning the workings of God in his universe, which 
sought for both definition and utterance. The idea 
of writing a book on that subject grew stronger and 
stronger, until it became overmastering, and to himself 
he often repeated the words of Elihu: "I will answer 
also my part, I also will shew mine opinion. For I am 
full of matter, the spirit within me constraineth me." 
Toward the close of his divinity studies in Edinburgh, 
he finally ventured to sketch an outline of the plan he 
had been evolving, and to read it as a paper before the 
Theological Society. His effort met with prompt recog- 
nition, and he felt encouraged to go forward. But enter- 
ing, soon afterward, upon the active life of a pastor, 
he was prevented from laboring steadily on his theme, 
first by the composition of sermons, and then by his 
zealous participation in the disruption struggle. These 
occupations, however, were no hindrance to his intel- 
lectual growth; on the contrary, they gave reality to 
his speculations, and stamped his thought with a con- 



From a portrait painted in 1847 



CHAPTE; 

OCn OF A Llf-. 

ibO- , ■■ JOUw 

.ijudenb at Glas.c^ow was tho . . 

ua:!ti; 't appear i ready 

thero werG • tlioiights in hi» mind. 

/.nv.nc-.rv.i-T^. w. i^ig umveise, whlcli 

/•rai>ce. The idea 



■■a, 

had been evolvii ad it as a paper before the 

Theological Society. His effort met with prompt recog- 
nition, and he felt encouraged to go forward. But enter- 
ing, soon afterward, upon the active life of a pastor, 
he was prevented from laboring steadily on his theme, 
first by the composition of sermons, and then by his 
>;ealous participation in the disruption struggle. "" 

nie^ f.hiv. <■■•,■'./■, f.r.'vrtr they P'd.v- 



FIRST EPOCH OF A LIFE-WORK 103 

creteness which it never lost. The basis of his philo- 
sophic creed being the intuitionism of the Scottish school, 
experience modified it into the forms of his special philos- 
ophy. Many discriminating critics have seen in the 
heavy parish work of Green, during the years he spent as 
a hard-working rector in East London, the preliminary 
training which made him England's most noted popular 
historian. Similarly, McCosh, by his severe novitiate as 
a defender of spiritual truth among plain people, gained 
the ability to write profoundly and yet lucidly upon 
metaphysical questions, so that in the end he became 
essentially an interpreter, a philosopher for the many as 
well as for the few. 

During the generation preceding his own it had been 
established by a long and varied induction in all parts 
of the knowable world, that nature was uniform, and 
this concept was expressed in his day by the formula 
that all events take place according to law. This 
thought was used for the purpose of undermining Chris- 
tianity, and " Combe's Constitution of Man," a book to 
which reference has already been made, was considered 
by large numbers to have shown conclusively that God 
was but another designation for the "laws of nature." 
As if to fortify this position Mill's Logic appeared, con- 
taining what seemed to be a demonstration of the theory 
of uniformity which completely excludes the supernatural 
from the sphere of nature and man. The reading of these 
books made McCosh very uneasy, and in every leisure 
moment he pondered what might be meant by the uni- 
formity of nature, and how such a uniformity stood 
related to the personal Creator. Considering the alter- 
nation of day and night, the rotation of the seasons, 



104 JAMES MCCOSH 

and similar phenomena, he seemed to discern that the 
principle underlying them was quite different from the 
" law or laws of causation," as that fire burns and light 
shines, the former being complex, a result of combina- 
tion which implies arrangement and design. His exten- 
sive reading in the sciences of geology and biology roused 
an intense interest in the religious problems arising from 
their development, and this was another element in his 
processes of reflection. Simultaneously, his sermonizing 
'and spiritual ministrations impressed upon him, ever 
more and more deeply, the practical force df Scriptural 
teaching as to the law and government of God. This 
brought the whole subject of the divine government, 
physical and moral, into great prominence before his 
mind, and he found that there was no comprehensive 
book on the subject to guide his thoughts. He deter- 
mined to write one, but as his scheme took form 
his self-examination suddenly revealed the fact that 
he had been trained in a philosophical system, the 
one so long prevalent in Scotland, which took no 
notice of so obvious a fact as sin. This called up the 
novel problem, novel, that is, to the Scottish philos- 
ophy, of the relation between moral law and sin. 
Meditating upon such themes, the clergyman seemed to 
feel as never before that the Creator is not only benevo- 
lent but holy, and thus, tracing natural and moral law 
alike to their source while at the same time taking cog- 
nizance of sin, he concluded that God governs this world 
by laws much mightier in their sweep than is ordinarily 
apprehended, and that these so cross and co-operate as 
to secure the accomplishment of the divine purpose, in 
spite of apparent contradictions and interruptions. The 



FIRST EPOCH OF A LIFE-WORK 105 

conclusion of tlie whole matter was that God's moral 
nature makes man both moral and responsible. And 
if this were true, religion could not be what Morell's 
"Philosophy of Eeligion," a rationalistic book imbued 
with transcendentalism, antipodal in its teachings to 
Combe's "Constitution of Man," and also widely read, 
taught that it was: namely, the possession of certain 
religious intuitions, the examination of these by the 
reason, and the rising by reflection upon them from 
the particular to the general. 

No sooner did McCosh's heavy though pleasant labors 
in founding congregations of the Free Church throughout 
the district assigned to him relax a little, than he be- 
gan the composition of a book for the purpose of setting 
forth this line of thought. The result was " The Method 
of the Divine Government, Physical and Moral." During 
the period of writing, the author received much encour- 
agement from his intimate college friend, William Hanna. 
It was he, likewise, who aided in the work incidental to 
publication. The author showed his book in manuscript 
to Dr. Cunningham and Dr. James Buchanan. Both 
approved, and the latter suggested some changes which 
were adopted. The volume was published in 1850, and 
through Dr. Guthrie copies were sent to the two Scotch- 
men then most eminent in the world of abstract thought. 
Sir William Hamilton and Hugh Miller. The former 
announced his decision at once: "Aloof from any dif- 
ference of opinion, and though I have as yet only read 
the work in part, it appears to me worthy of the highest 
encomium, not only for the excellence but for the ability 
with which it is written. It is refreshing to read a work 
so distinguished for originality and soundness of think- 



106 JAMES MCCOSH 

ing, especially as coming from an author of out own 
country." Hugh Miller said, in the " Witness," that the 
work was of the "compact and thought-eliciting com- 
plexion which men do not willingly let die: and we 
promise such of our readers," he continued, "as may 
possess themselves of it, much entertainment and in- 
struction of a high order, and a fund of solid thought 
which they will not soon exhaust." Many of the 
author's personal friends had thought that it was 
risky to publish so stout a volume as a first venture; 
but under the sanction of men like Hamilton and Miller, 
the first edition was exhausted in six months. An 
American edition was published very soon afterward by 
the Carters, and that, too, sold rapidly. The book passed 
through twenty editions in less than forty years and still 
has a sale in both Great Britain and America. 

Time, therefore, may be said to have passed its judgment 
upon the " Divine Government." The book succeeded for 
two reasons, because it was timely, and because it had 
intrinsic worth of a high order. Although Hamilton had 
spent twenty years expounding Kant, though Coleridge's 
" Aids to Eeflection " had attractively presented transcen- 
dentalism, and though Carlyle was turning German 
thought into English literature, yet German speculation 
had for all that exercised little or no influence on the 
British public. Cousin had been rather the fashionable 
novelty, and the "Positive Philosophy" was attracting 
attention. The distinction between Mental and Natural 
Philosophy, which was then well-nigh universal, is most 
enlightening for the comprehension of contemporaneous 
opinion as to the classification of the sciences, their rela- 
tion to each other, and to philosophy. From this some- 



FIRST EPOCH OF A LIFE-WORK 107 

what circumscribed and chaotic condition of thought, the 
two tendencies noted above had already emerged, each in 
its own way doing great harm. McCosh was not con- 
cerned to write anything which would be in the air ; he 
desired to combat, and did attack concrete thinking as 
it then existed. Consequently, although it is possible to 
trace in this his first volume the origins of all his sub- 
sequent philosophical writing, the book is in no proper 
sense a constructive essay. The style is easy and flow- 
ing, popular and in places picturesque, sometimes even 
rhetorical as the taste of the time required. The con- 
tents display the writer's most striking characteristics : 
passionate earnestness to battle for the right, keen per- 
ception of an enemy's snares and wiles, catholic compre- 
hension of the intellectual state among those whom he 
seeks to win. His readers were in the main not philo- 
sophical experts, but laymen; professional men in law, 
medicine, and theology, but not metaphysicians ; merchants, 
teachers, bankers, — the thoughtful multitude which wants 
to know in the vernacular, and dislikes the fog of techni- 
cal terms too often used by experts to hide the lack of 
definition in their conceptions. Such men rose from the 
perusal of the " Divine Government " with the assurance 
that they were more reasonable in their Christian faith than 
those who sought to substitute for it a vague materialistic 
interpretation of the universe. In later years its author 
thought the volume " lumpish," and disliked the passages 
he had introduced to win readers not disposed toward 
philosophy. He felt that he could either have lengthened 
or have abridged it profitably, but like every man with 
a message to deliver, he was unwilling to tamper with 
what had been his best work at the time it was done. 



108 JAMES MCCOSH 

In 1850, the year in which the " Method of th6 Divine 
Government" was issued, the British government estab- 
lished in Ireland a Queen's University for the promotion of 
non-sectarian education. It included three colleges, situ- 
ated respectively at Galway, Cork, and Belfast. That in 
the last-named city was the strongest, and there were many 
candidates for its chairs. An old Edinburgh University 
friend of the author. Professor Gibson of the Theological 
Seminary in Belfast, sent a copy of McCosh's "Divine 
Government " to Lord Clarendon, the famous Whig states- 
man, then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. This was done on 
the professor's own responsibility and without the knowl- 
edge of his classmate. The volume was accompanied by 
letters recommending McCosh for the vacant chair of 
Logic and Metaphysics in Belfast, both from the sender and 
from the president of the college. The recipient sat down 
on a Sunday morning to glance through the volume, and 
becoming interested read throughout the whole forenoon, 
forgetting to go to church. Convinced that such a book 
could come only from the pen of a competent and sound 
thinker, the Earl inquired further as to its writer's qualifi- 
cations as a teacher. The replies were enthusiastic, and 
McCosh was appointed to the professorship without any 
application on his own part, directly or indirectly. The 
letter informing him of the fact was therefore a surprise, 
and threw him into a dilemma. On the one hand, he was 
reluctant to leave his ministerial office ; on the other hand, 
he had the opportunity to follow his natural bent, to cul- 
tivate his aptitude for metaphysics, and to exercise a pow- 
erful influence on the opinions of young men. He turned 
for advice to Thomas Guthrie and Hugh Miller, both of 
whom felt he should at least consider the offer with care. 



FIRST EPOCH OF A LIFE-WORK 109 

Professor Gibson wrote on October 4, 1851 : "I can readily 
sympathize with you in your perplexity. It is a serious 
thing to abandon, under any circumstances, the direct 
work of the ministry, and the step should not be taken 
unless the way were made plain. There is no doubt, how- 
ever, but the person who may fill the vacant chair will be 
brought into immediate contact with the future pastors 
of the church. " 

Such considerations induced McCosh to pay a visit to 
Belfast, in order to see how the position and its opportu- 
nities might appear on closer inspection. He found that • 
there existed considerable local jealousy, a feeling directed 
not so much against himself or the doctrine he had ex- 
pounded, as against the introduction to so important an 
office of a stranger from over the sea. Careful scrutiny 
showed that the whole movement turned about the dis- 
appointment of one man, who had considered himself the 
most prominent candidate. Being an editor, his journal 
had been able to create the antagonism without revealinsr 
its true cause. Professor Gibson, who was McCosh's host, 
had invited a company of gentlemen to dine with his 
friend, carefully selecting those whose favorable opinion 
would be most influential in the community, among them 
Dr. Cooke, the leading Presbyterian clergyman of the city. 
After dinner, the host, with a somewhat quizzical expres- 
sion, addressed his guest very pointedly, and inquired 
whether he was familiar with the Irish custom of singin<y 
at that hour. Without awaiting an answer he introduced 
his son, a lad with a fine voice, who immediately began to 
sing Thackeray's now well-known ballad, which had just 
been written to satirize the Irish exclusiveness that had 
flickered up in relation to the recent appointment, and 



110 JAMES MCCOSH 

which had heen published in the latest number of " Punch." 
The verses and introduction, as there printed, are as 
follows : 

THE LAST IRISH GRIEVANCE. 

On reading of the general indignation occasioned in Ireland by the 
appointment of a Scotch Professor to one of HEE MAJESTY'S Godless 
Colleges, MASTER MOLLOY MOLONY, brother of THADDEUS 
MOLONY, ESQ., of the Temple, a youth only fifteen years of age, dashed 
off the following spirited lines : 

« As I think of the insult that 's done to this nation, 
Red tears of rivinge from ine faytures I wash, 
And uphold in this pome, to the world's daytistation, 
The sleeves that appointed PROFESSOE M'COSH. 

I look round me counthree, renowned by exparience, 
And see midst her childthren, the witty, the wise, — 

Whole hayps of logicians, poets, schollars, grammarians, 
All ayger for pleeces, all panting to rise ; 

I gaze round the world in its utmost diminsion ; 

LARD JAHN and his minions in Council I ask, 
Was there ever a Govern ment-pleece (with a pinsion) 

But children of Erin were fit for that task ? 

What, Erin beloved, is thy fetal condition? 

What shame in ayeh boosom must rankle and burrun, 
To think that our countree has ne'er a logician 

In the hour of her deenger will surrev her turrun ! 

On the logic of Saxons there 's little reliance, 
And, rather from Saxon than gather its rules, 

I 'd stamp under feet the base book of his science, 
And spit on his chair as he taught in the schools ! 



FIRST EPOCH OF A LIFE-WORK HI 

false SIR JOHN KANE, is it thus that you pravch me ? 

I think all j'our Queen's Universitees bosh ; 
And if you 've no neetive Professor to taych me, 

I scawurn to be learned by the Saxon M'Cosh. 

There's WISEMAN and CHUME, and His Grace the Lord 
Primate, 

That sinds round the box, and the world will subscribe ; 
'T is they '11 build a College that 's fit for our climate, 

And taych me the saj'crets I burn to imboibe ! 

'T is there as a Student of Science I '11 enther, 

Fair Fountain of Knowledge, of Joy, and Contint ! 

SAINT PATHRICK'S sweet Statue shall stand in the centher, 
And wink his dear oi every daj' during Lint. 

And good DOCTOR NEWMAN, that praycher unwary, 

'T is he shall preside the Academee School, 
And quit the gay robe of ST. PHILIP of Neri, 

To wield the soft rod of ST. LAWRENCE O'TOOLE ! 

The stranger's amazement, not to say consternation, 
under the amused observation of the merry company, 
was a better introduction to their good graces than any 
other which could have been devised by his host. When 
it was announced that the verses were by no less a man 
than Thackeray, the guest was quite as merry as the 
others. The poem was copied into all the local journals, 
and dissipated all opposition in the truly Irish way, — a fit 
of laughter. Soon afterward, McCosh accepted the ap- 
pointment, and when he removed to Belfast he was re- 
ceived with heartiness and true Irish kindness. 

The first care of the new professor was to fix upon the 
method he should follow in his teaching. He had no 



112 JAMES MCCOSH 

faith whatever in an argument for the teaching of mental 
science sufficiently common, both then and now, that 
even if there be no truth in its subject-matter, it is fitted 
to brace and discipline the mind. Throughout life he 
remained firm in the conviction which in later years he 
thus expressed : 

If truth is not aimed at and gained, the tendency will 
be to bewilder the mind, and the end will be a feeling of 
disappointment, discontent, and ennui. There will always 
be a painful contrast drawn between the solid results 
reached in modern physical science and the inanity and 
emptiness of mere speculation, and the student in his 
struggles will be as one that beateth the air. It is a 
realistic philosophy founded on the facts of our nature 
that is fitted profitably to exercise the minds of young 
men, to stimulate and cultivate their observing and think- 
ing powers, and to send them forth with important prin- 
ciples incorporated into their very being, to interest and 
guide them through all their future lives. 

Trained in the Scottish school of philosophy, he was 
not satisfied either with its methods or with its results. 
It seemed to him, when confronted with the solemn 
responsibility of training unformed and receptive minds, 
that he should in the main follow the experimental 
method, emphasizing what he found by introspection in 
his own mind, and in that of others as he could discover 
it, either by personal intercourse with his fellow-men, 
or by the perusal of the best biographies. This prin- 
ciple he sought to follow in his teaching of philosophy 
in the wider sense of Psychology and Metaphysics. But 
he had also to teach Logic, and in that department espe- 



FIRST EPOCH OF A LIFE-WORK 113 

cially lie felt the method of the Scottish school to be loose 
and unscientific. This had been pointed out by both Hamil- 
ton and Whately, who sought to restore both theoretically 
and practically the rigid correctness of Aristotle, 

Accordingly, in the composition of his lectures, Pro- 
fessor McCosh strove earnestly to supply the omissions 
of the Scottish school. In his conclusions, Psychology 
was held to be the first discipline of all mental science. 
In constructing a system he gave a new and improved 
arrangement of the relations which the mind can dis- 
cover, which he held to be those of identity, of whole 
and parts, of comprehension, of resemblance, of space and 
time, of quantity and action, of property and causation. 
Following Aristotle, he introduced into his teaching a 
discussion of the phantasy or pictorial power ; and from 
his own speculations he brought forward what he called 
the recognitive power, that by which the idea of an event 
happening in the past is obtained. The mental powers 
he divided into two classes, the cognitive and the motive, 
including under the latter the feelings, the conscience, 
and the will. What was then designated as Metaphysics 
he sought to strip of the mystery w^hich had been thrown 
around it, regarding that department of mental science 
as concerned with the fundamental laws of the intellect- 
ual faculties. As to Logic, he became persuaded, after a 
long course of careful reading and reflection, that no im- 
provement was possible in that portion of it which deals 
with reasoning, but he was otherwise impressed with 
that part which deals with the notion in thought and 
form in language. Accordingly, he examined that divi- 
sion of his subject with interest and zeal, and concluded 
that in the notion were three simple forms, the singular, 

8 



114 JAMES MCCOSH 

the abstract, and the general, with a fourth, which was 
a compound of these. These views he developed in the 
treatise on Logic, which he afterwards published. 

Queen's College had not, of course, the prestige of the 
ancient universities, like Dublin, Edinburgh, Oxford, or 
Cambridge ; but it had a very enthusiastic, ambitious, 
and active body of students, young men for the most 
part who had no particular influence of birth or wealth, 
but who knew that the authorities, in their zeal for 
securing the most efficient public service possible, were 
scouring all the institutions of learning, and that their 
chance in a new institution would be better than in an 
older one. Among such students. Professor McCosh was 
able to arouse a lively interest, and one more general, as 
he always felt, than any he was afterwards able to 
awaken in America. It was his delight to encourage 
the most promising, to stimulate their ambition, and to 
assist them in securing employment suited to their 
powers. One portion of his method as a teacher, and 
that upon which he laid the greatest stress, was his 
requirement of written work from every student of his 
class. These papers he criticised, and such portions as 
seemed original or excellent in any way he was accus- 
tomed to read to the class as a whole. This exercise 
brought him into very close contact with his students. 
He was fond of examining their aptitudes and characters, 
partly from human sympathy, partly as a portion of 
what may be called his laboratory work. From the first 
he was astute in his judgments, and his greatest pleas- 
ure was to see his predictions verified. No one can have 
so vivid a picture of a great teacher as his pupils. Two 
of the most distinguished have recorded their impressions 



FIRST EPOCH OF A LIFE- WORK 115 

of Professor McCosh as he appeared and taught in Belfast, 
and one of them has added an account of his other activi- 
ties at the same time. The first of these relations is by 
Sir Eobert Hart, whose extended fame as the director of 
the Chinese custom-house was a source of unceasing satis- 
faction to his former teacher. Professor McCosh recog- 
nized his eminence, as only one very able man can 
recognize another, in the beginning of their relations, 
guided his studies, and pointed out his career by choos- 
ing him as the candidate of Queen's College to compete in 
an examination for a position in the consular service of 
Great Britain in China, open to all the colleges of the 
three kingdoms. Hart stood first, received the appoint- 
ment, went to China, won the confidence of the Chinese by 
his integrity and ability, and is now the first among all 
foreigners in the Emperor's service. He has done much 
for China in the institution of reforms, and is the mainstay 
of his country's relations to the Empire. Among his many 
important enterprises, that of establishing an institution 
of western learning for the Chinese is not the least 
worthy of mention. The gratification felt by Dr. McCosh 
when, on the graduation of his son from Princeton, Sir 
Eobert Hart wrote to offer the young man a position in 
China, was very great. Sir Eobert Hart writes as follows : 
" I have a very vivid recollection of Dr. McCosh's first 
appearance at the Queen's College, Belfast, in 1851. His 
name was already on people's lips, and the large class- 
room in which he was to deliver his introductory address 
was filled to overflowing, everybody having hurried there 
to welcome the new arrival, and show Ulster's sympathy 
with Scotch learning. I can see him as he passed up 
the hall to the desk in the corner, — a tall, broad- 



116 JAMES MCCOSH 

shouldered man, with a fine head and handsome face, 
somewhat bent forward, and a general look that was 
more clerical than professional. The paper he then read 
was long, learned, and eloquent : it spake the thoughts 
of a man who believed what he said, who regarded men- 
tal science as the study of studies, and who, as its teacher, 
magnified his office, — and it was pervaded by freshness 
of mind and clearness of expression. 

" I presume his lectures at Princeton were the same he 
delivered at Belfast, but probably retouched and ex- 
panded. I wonder, however, if he ever took up one 
point on which I once asked him for an explanation 
without getting it, and that was the process the mind 
goes through in questioning, — ought there not to be an 
Interrogative faculty on the list ? He pulled his long 
nose for a moment, and then left me, but never recurred 
to the matter. 

" His lectures were quite captivating, but dealt with 
very dry subjects, and, although I followed the Logic 
course at sixteen, and took Metaphysics at seventeen, 
they interested me so much that for a time my chief 
ambition was to win the lecturer's commendation, and 
head the class. I wrote quickly in those days, and so, 
noting down most of what he said, I was able to repro- 
duce his own language at examinations and in essays, 
and with this he was always much pleased. He held 
that mind and universe, being the creation of the same 
hand, correspond, — that the one knows, and the other 
is "known, and that reality corresponds to knowledge. 
This agreed with what consciousness tells everybody, and 
supplied a firm foundation to build on. To all of us he 
was very kind, while somewhat exacting, especially so 



FIRST EPOCH OF A LIFE-WORK 117 

to the more earnest students ; and he was also very 
stern, although readier to help them out of a difficulty 
than to push them further into it, with the idlers and 
the inattentive. He used to invite us to his breakfast- 
table occasionally, and in that way set up a bond of 
sympathy between his classes and himself which did not 
exist in other departments. Professors, as a rule, held 
their heads very high, and it was only in the lecture- 
room that students came in contact with them. On 
special occasions he sometimes consented to appear in 
the pulpit, and then his sermons draped orthodoxy in 
robes that told all it was Professor McCosh who was 
preaching. 

"During my last year at college he talked with me very 
kindly about my plans for the future, and very frankly 
told me in what directions he thought I might prove a 
failure, and in what others a success, but it certainly 
never occurred to either of us to foresee where the fates 
would carry us, or what work the future really meant 
for us. Since parting in 1854, we never again met, and 
the letters that passed between us have not been numer- 
ous. He always evinced a very friendly interest in my 
person and in my work, and on my side I always cher- 
ished the hope of seeing him again, and looked forward 
with very pleasant anticipations to visiting him at 
Princeton when crossing America some time on my way 
to Europe, but the dear old man is dead, and the ex- 
pected meeting will not come off as planned." 

The other account is by Dr. Macloskie, professor of 
Biology in Princeton University. It displays with great 
fulness the characteristic will-power and tenacity of 



118 JAMES MCCOSH 

purpose which Dr. McCosh displayed in championing 
what he believed to be right, whether it was popular or 
not. 

" We were a noisy crowd of undergraduates who were 
assembled, somewhere about the year 1855, in the 
Library of Queen's College, Belfast, for the reception 
of the noblemen, distinguished judges and divines, whom 
her gracious Majesty had sent as Triennial Visitors of 
the Institution. The group about myself set themselves 
to the interesting problem of determining by personal 
inspection which of the great men on the platform was 
the finest-looking, and possibly there was some prejudice 
in our unanimous decision that the handsomest and most 
commanding of them all was our own Professor McCosh. 
Yet even then he was beginning to show the studious 
stoop which somewhat marred his noble bearing. We 
were also well aware how much his personality of mind 
preponderated over President and Vice-president and our 
other distinguished professors in the administration of 
the college ; and when the news spread that the only 
Professor whom we regarded as a Black Sheep had been 
detected in his delinquencies, and had decamped, we 
learned that it was McCosh who had secured the evi- 
dence and raised such a stir that the culprit adopted 
the better half of valor. Hence the Doctor's name be- 
came a terror to evil-doers ; and in his class-room the 
most unruly of the students was absolutely quiet. 

" His class exercises and lectures were then at their 
best. He was not good at declamation in public; there 
was a slight hesitancy in his extempore utterances on 
the platform, and perhaps too much logic and too little 
" padding " for popular assemblages. But in expounding 



FIRST EPOCH OF A LIFE-WORK 119 

philosophy or drilling students the hesitancy disappeared; 
and his written lectures and carefully prepared sermons 
were very fine, not even omitting " padding " or illustra- 
tions of high order. As, a few days ago, I sat beside his 
coffin in his library there rushed up before my memory 
the lecture on the Association of Ideas in which he 
described a funeral, the death-scene, the hearse and the 
mourners, and all the accessories, as here realized over 
himself. Before leaving home on that morning of the 
funeral I had stated that I would read the passage of 
Scripture from which he preached about thirty years ago 
at the opening of Lecumpher Church (County London- 
derry, Ireland); whereupon my wife promptly told me 
what was the subject of the sermon ; and on my inquir- 
ing how she knew that, she replied that her friend, Mrs. 
Eobson, had been present, and had afterwards given her 
an account of it. It is not bad preaching that makes an 
impression lasting even at second-hand for thirty years. 
And in fact it was a sermon that none but a great man 
and a true Christian could preach, showing expository 
power, fire, and poetic imagination, and exhibiting Christ 
alone as the sinner's Friend. Another of his best appear- 
ances was before the Young Men's Association in Bel- 
fast, where he gave lectures on Kenan's " Life of Jesus," 
shortly after its publication. I have before me a news- 
paper cutting of the first of these lectures, and I regard 
it as the finest specimen known to me of vigorous and 
profitable apologetics. It would be as racy and accep- 
table in 1894 as it was in 1864. I would also add that 
all his college lectures, as well as his philosophical books, 
are illuminated with " bits " in defence of Christian truth, 
which greatly helped the faith of his students. 



120 JAMES MCCOSH 

"Among the community at large he was singularly 
active in promoting good objects, and his fertile mind 
was always devising new schemes for advancing morality 
and religion. During all his life his plans never lay 
dormant; but so soon as his mind was clear about the 
plan, he attempted its execution. In this way he did 
not fail to disturb the peace of those who wished to be 
let alone ; so that whether we judge him by the good he 
attempted, or by the sort of opposition he encountered, 
the verdict will be the same. In the year of the Great 
Eevival (1859), whilst some worthy men held aloof, or 
even attempted to condemn the movement, and to fore- 
bode evil results, Professor McCosh was active in trying 
to give it a right direction. He conducted Bible classes, 
and encouraged others to the same. One of his Bible 
classes, which required long journeys across Belfast, was 
at Lepper's Eow, for the mill-workers, where with tiio 
help of his distinguished pupil, Mr. Thomas Sinclair, he 
started the organization which has developed into Dun- 
cairn Church. About the same date he united with Kev. 
L. E. Berkeley in founding the Bible and Colportage 
Society of Ireland, which has ever since continued to 
send trained missionaries with the word of God and 
other Christian literature to all parts of that country. 
McCosh to the last regarded colportage as the most 
suitable form of evangelization for the circumstances of 
Ireland. It was the sight of the great philosopher going 
about in Belfast with his collecting book in hand trying 
to secure support for colporteurs, that first made me a 
convert to the cause. 

"The ecclesiastical condition of Ireland was at that 
time anomalous: the rich Episcopalian minority being 



FIRST EPOCH OF A LIFE-WORK 121 

sustained as tlie Established Church ; a sop thrown to 
the Presbyterian middle-class minority in the shape of 
a Eegium Donum or partial endowment; wliich helped 
them to acquiesce in the wrong done to the Eoman 
Catholic majority, who were poor and left out in the 
cold. When the right time arrived Dr. McCosh lectured 
and wrote in favor of Disestablishment and Disendow- 
ment, and argued from his experience in Scotland for the 
inauguration of a Sustentation Fund by the Irish Pres- 
byterians. This was the opening of a struggle, which 
ended in the carrying out of all his views, greatly to the 
furtherance of religion as the people of Ireland now con- 
fess. But he gave offence by his first advocacy of such 
measures, and he was reproached with intermeddling in 
what he as a foreigner could not understand. After 
disendowment had become an accomplished fact, and 
McCosh had gone to America, one of the ecclesiastical 
leaders said to me that the incident in his own public 
career which he most bitterly regretted was an unkind 
speech which he had delivered against McCosh in the 
debate on disestablishment. This may go beside the 
fact that the American ecclesiastic who wrote most 
severely against Dr. McCosh for his advocacy of susten- 
tation, afterwards delivered an enthusiastic eulogy of 
him at an annual meeting of Princeton Theological 
Seminary. It is pleasant to recall these things now 
that all the actors are gone to their reward. McCosh's 
utterances on behalf of a Sustentation Fund in America 
were the sequel of his observing the benefits of such 
measures in Scotland and Ireland; and notwithstanding 
opposition his proposals are already bearing fruit in this 
country It was characteristic of the man not to be 



122 JAMES MCCOSH 

frightened by personal criticism from the advocacy of a 
good cause (and I have never known him to advocate 
what was not good). 

" During my student-days the great work on * Typical 
Forms and Special Ends in Creation ' was published 
under the joint authorship of Dr. McCosh and Dr. 
George Dickie. I call it a great work as my verdict 
after having read it over again within the last year. The 
contributions of both authors were excellent, though 
possibly one of them may not have estimated at its full 
value the share of his colleague. Dickie was a man 
greatly beloved, of fine scientific genius, and a Christian 
through and through, in his quiet manner a contrast to 
McCosh, and he put into this book the careful observa- 
tions of his life-time. The book, though presenting what 
I regard as the best summary of the old argument for 
Natural Theology, would not apply in our time without 
some readjustment. Its ' Typical Eorms,' borrowed from 
Goethe and other Nature-Philosophers of the last cen- 
tury, would need to be transformed into the Types or 
Phyla by heredity of our day ; and its ' special ends ' are 
very like Darwin's * survival of the fittest,' but giving 
prominence to the principle of Design, which Darwin so 
carefully eliminated, and which is now forcing its way 
back even into Evolution-Biology. Dickie's method of 
argument by marshalling long hosts of carefully observed 
facts, which point towards the goal, is so strangely sug- 
gestive of Darwin's method, that if the relative dates of 
their works were reversed, one might imagine that 
Dickie copied Darwin. 

" As McCosh was the only name then known to the 
public for authorship, he got the lion's share of the 



FIRST EPOCH OF A LIFE-WORK 123 

praise ; Dickie's share was naturally overlooked, and he 
felt disappointed. Some of the Dublin University pro- 
fessors remarked to me at the time that the mistake con- 
sisted in not publishing two books ; as the part of each, 
if made a separate work, would have been more popular 
than their joint production. What really ruined the run 
of this book was the appearance soon after its publication 
of Darwin's ' Origin of Species,' which carried the whole 
controversy into new regions. This may explain, in 
part, the hostility to Darwinism of my revered friend, 
Dr. Dickie, whose carefully drawn and really sound lines 
of argument were overwhelmed by the new theory ; just 
as Louis Agassiz, in the New World, was annoyed to 
find all the speculations which had lifted him to emi- 
nence buried by the same influence. Asa Gray tried to 
show to the American people that Darwinism was prob- 
ably true, and was quite consistent with Christianity ; 
but Gray's influence was confined to scientific circles, 
and he had as little success in his efforts to Darwinize 
the American public as he had in his effort to lead Dar- 
win himself back to theism. Agassiz was the scientific 
oracle, and when he called Darwinism infidelity, the pop- 
ular response was : Just so. 

" It was in this juncture that McCosh showed his char- 
acteristic readiness to learn, his honesty in discarding 
his published opinions, and his courage. First in his 
'Christianity and Positivism,' he pointed out the reli- 
gious bearing of Darwinism, and signified his acceptance 
of it when properly understood, and he followed this up 
by a series of contributions and booklets, as 'Develop- 
ment: what it can do, and what it cannot do,' and by 
his paper before the Presbyterian Alliance in Philadel- 



124 JAMES MCCOSH 

phia, 1880. He knew enough science to keep clear of 
mistakes on that side, and he got all his later works 
read in proof by some of his scientific friends ; so that 
his writings are respected by scientists, and they always 
commanded a hearing from the public. During those 
years there was much agitation among the churches about 
Darwinism, or as we have come more conveniently to 
term it, Development or Evolution. Our Methodist 
brethren dismissed one of their professors, and the 
Southern Presbyterians dismissed another for teaching 
it ; a good and wise divine of our own made a dangerous 
mistake when he published a book on the subject, treat- 
ing it as if it were a theological or an ti- theological dogma, 
himself grievously misunderstanding it (as non-scientific 
writers nearly always do), and so far misleading the peo- 
ple that an attempt was made in the Presbyterian Church 
to do for Evolution what another ecclesiastical body once 
attempted to do for the movement of the earth. I could 
give many illustrations of the blunders and bad spirit 
which I observed among able Christian men on this ques- 
tion, and the brunt of the storm fell on Dr. McCosh, 
whose religious sincerity was sometimes questioned. 

" But these matters may now rest. He, by his writings, 
averted a disastrous war between science and faith, and in 
' his ' college, men have studied Biology without discarding 
their religion. At length over all America a happy modtis 
Vivendi has been reached ; whilst the intelligent public 
are not sure whether Evolution is sound or erroneous, 
they are convinced that it is not dangerous to Christian- 
ity. I suspect that future writers will represent this as 
the best service that Dr. McCosh or any other Christian 
apologist has rendered in our day." 



CHAPTER IX 

PUBLIC LIFE IN IRELAND 

1856-1868 

'T'HE benevolent and religious work of Dr. McCosh 
during his residence in Belfast deserves more than 
passing mention. As is so often the case with strong 
natures, his avocations were as useful and arduous as the 
business to which he had devoted his life. His social 
connections were from the beginning very extensive, men 
and women of all classes recognizing in him that vigor- 
ous humanity which transcends the limitations of birth 
and station in all directions. Accordingly, he secured 
invaluable assistance from every social rank. One of 
the outcast districts in the great manufacturing city 
was Smithfield, and in that slum quarter with the 
assistance of two noble co-workers. Miss Stevenson and 
Miss Simms, he established a school which grew to have 
six teachers and sometimes as high as six hundred pupils. 
Though it was ultimately connected with the national 
system, the teachers were then as always expected to in- 
culcate piety and morality both by precept and example. 
Nearly two-thirds of the scholars were of Eoman Catholic 
families-, and sometimes the priests grew alarmed at the 
possible religious influence which might be exerted over 
the members of their flocks, at intervals even forbidding 
their attendance at school. But such episodes were of 



126 JAMES MCCOSH 

short duration, and the school continued to thrive until 
it was firmly established. 

To a man of Dr. McCosh's ardent piety, such philan- 
thropic work seemed secular, and he yearned for more 
spiritual exercise. Selecting as a coadjutor Mr. Thomas 
Sinclair, his ablest student at the time, he began in a 
large, neglected quarter of the city the work of building 
up a congregation and organizing a church. Visiting 
from house to house, they inquired for the Presbyterian 
families which they knew to be sparsely scattered through 
the neighborhood, and when one was found the well- 
known name of the younger man served as an introduc- 
tion for both. These families had for the most part come 
from the country, and sadly needed pastoral attention. If 
any proved indifferent. Dr. McCosh suggested communi- 
cating with their former pastors, and, as he soon had 
an extensive acquaintance with the ministers throughout 
the north of Ireland, he would thus have been able to 
establish a personal influence. But ordinarily even the 
most careless were startled by the thought of permitting 
those they had loved in their country homes to be in- 
formed as to their present condition, and consented to 
reform. A little knot of regular hearers was soon gath- 
ered in a school-room secured for the purpose. Witli his 
old habits of parochial visitation strong upon him. Dr. 
McCosh then began a regular canvass of the quarter, pass- 
ing no door without a summons. The Koman Catholics 
were at first very hostile, but as he avoided all contro- 
versial questions he made many warm friends among 
even them. He was fond of recalling that they were 
never unwilling to talk both of the Saviour and of his 
love for sinners, and especially anxious that the Protes- 



PUBLIC LIFE IN IRELAND 127 

tants who attended no place of worship should be cared 
for. Concerning the latter, he thus obtained much in- 
valuable information, and within a few months he had 
collected an audience of a hundred and fifty for his regu- 
lar services. On one occasion only was a threatening 
demonstration made against the two evangelists. They 
wisely avoided a conflict, but as they displayed no fear 
the surly working-men who threatened them dispersed. 
Choosing his opportunity. Dr. McCosh made ready to 
organize his congregration, and to that end invited the 
people on a certain week-night to hear a sermon from 
Mr. Killen, a clergyman located at no great distance in 
the country. They came and listened eagerly. On the 
next Lord's Day, their leader plumply suggested that they 
should elect officers, and call the preacher. They were 
amazed, and at first declared themselves utterly unable 
to pay a salary ; but finally they yielded to persuasion, 
and took the proposed steps. The benevolent and wealthy 
father of young Mr. Sinclair came forward at the crisis, 
and erected a church and school-house, thus giving the 
final impulse to a movement well started. The congrega- 
tion soon became numerous and strong. 

Dr. McCosh was among the first to recognize a fact 
which in our day is thoroughly understood, that the 
hold of the saloon upon the masses lies partially in its 
social attractiveness. His intimacy with working-men 
convinced him that their intemperance was often inci- 
dental to the desire for relaxation, which took them to 
the comfortable and cheerful resorts where drink is sold. 
Accordingly, he interested his friends in a project to pro- 
vide the temperate working-men with a similar meeting- 
place, where drink was not sold. A house was secured 



128 JAMES MCCOSH 

and furnislied for the purpose ; the men who frequented 
it were made to feel a sense of responsibility and pro- 
prietorship. Dr. McCosh gave his constant personal 
supervision to the enterprise, and the place soon became 
popular. Many were preserved from temptation, and 
the organizer felt amply repaid for his labors in the 
opportunities he found for the study of human character, 
which in its different phases was the subject-matter of 
his investigations. In fact, he looked upon such observa- 
tion of mankind, which to many others would be casual, 
not merely as instructive amusement but as the indispen- 
sable complement of his metaphysical speculations. 

Probably the most important of Dr. McCosh's avoca- 
tions was the scientific study of educational systems in 
their relation to the people. The inhabitants of Belfast, 
which is a great manufacturing centre, and confessedly 
the most enterprising town in Ireland, were much like 
those of similar cities elsewhere. The Scotch professor 
found himself at home among them from the beginning, 
for they seemed to him refined and highly intelligent; 
taste and culture being fostered by the Eoyal Academical 
Institution, which they had founded for the purpose. In 
their manners he found them to combine the stability of 
the Scotch with the liveliness of the Irish, very many of 
the upper classes being, in fact, of Scottish origin. The 
successful and wealthy families, like those of Great 
Britain, were aristocratic and exclusive, and during the 
American War of the Eebellion, then raging, they sym- 
pathized for the most part, like the English upper classes, 
with the South. In this. Dr. McCosh was utterly op- 
posed to them, and he made himself heard with no 
uncertain sound. The plain people, on the other hand, 



PUBLIC LIFE m IKELAi^D 129 

"were earnest in their devotion to tlie cause of liberty, 
and so also were their friends and relatives among the 
Ulster farmers. The classes of Queen's College had 
many members from among these enterprising, indus- 
trious, serious people, and Professor McCosh became 
deeply interested in them, studying their needs with 
care. In so doing he was thrown much with the Pres- 
byterian clergy. The Free Church movement in Scot- 
land had been followed with great sympathy by the 
orthodox Presbyterians in Ireland, and the consequence 
was that a movement for establishing more rigid tests 
had been successfully inaugurated. Those who would not 
subscribe to the Westminster Confession, a considerable 
number, were compelled to leave the church, and they 
formed a denomination which was similar in character 
to the American Unitarians of the Channing type. The 
leader of the orthodox was Dr. Cooke, the ablest of the 
Unitarians was Dr. Montgomery, both men of great 
power. Irish Presbyterianism, therefore, became rigidly 
Calvinistic, and as the people were now harmonious, they 
also became combative, in particular they met the Eoman 
Catholic intolerance with equal narrowness, emphasizing 
the political tenets of the Eevolution of 1688, and iden- 
tifying themselves with the Orange societies until the 
enmity between the two classes had become bitter. The 
Presbyterians were the stronger, and their aggressive 
attitude barred the way to any missionary work among 
the Eoman Catholics. This was a source of disquietude 
to McCosh, and he often censured the Protestants severely 
for repelling rather than wooing their fellow-countrymen. 
Of course the Presbyterian clergy were quite as resolute 
as he was. Their people were shrewd, intelligent, and 



130 JAMES MCCOSH 

laborious, but poor, so that their stipends were small, 
and the Eegium Donum, a gift from the government of 
some seventy pounds, which each settled pastor received 
as a supplement to his salary, was of great importance to 
them. Hence they stood in a conservative relation to 
the state, were stanch in their attachment to Church and 
creed, and polemic in their attitude generally. Dr. Mc- 
Cosh was not the man to fight with negative weapons. 
He desired the abolition of the Eegium Donum, in order 
to give the clergy their independence, but suggested the 
raising of a great sustentation fund to take the place of 
the government bounty, as had been done in Scotland to 
make good the absence of state support to the Free 
Church. In order to counteract the tendency to narrow- 
ness and exclusiveness which sundered the various classes 
of the Irish population, he devoted himself to the reform 
of education, both primary and intermediate. 

This involved him in a great agitation, but throughout 
he kept his intimacy with the able ministers of Belfast, 
— Dr. Cooke, Dr. Morgan, Mr. McNaughton, Mr. William 
Johnston, Mr. Shaw, and Mr. Knox, — a fact most credit- 
able to them and to him. Dr. Cooke was a thorough 
conservative, eloquent as an orator, magnetic as a leader, 
abounding in pointed wit, in readiness of repartee, and in 
genuine feeling. Of course he and Dr. McCosh disagreed 
on vital points, and the latter was often exposed to the 
artillery of his opponent's wit, but it was characteristic 
of both that their final parting was emotional even to 
tears. The force of the double agitation against state 
interference in the Church, and an imperfect educational 
system, lay of course in its righteousness. The religion 
of srreat numbers anions; the Protestant laboring-classes 



PUBLIC LIFE m IKELAND 131 

was nothing but a hatred of " Popery," and the faith of 
the Orangeman was his antagonism to the Eomanist. 
Many of the Orangemen attended no church, and, being 
powerful and fearless, felt they had done their whole 
duty when they had defeated their opponents in the too 
numerous riots which were called Catholic disturbances. 
The ignorance of the masses was as complete as their 
indifference, at least in regard to anything beyond the 
rudiments of education. The primary schools were excel- 
lent as far as they went, but, leading to nothing, the 
formal knowledge of reading, writing, and arithmetic had 
no civilizing influence. In order to support the colleges, 
grammar and high schools were essential, but quite as 
much so in order to foster habits of reading and medita- 
tion amoug the masses ; above all, in order to encourage 
the able and ambitious, an easy path upward must be 
provided. The material was admirable ; what was needed 
was the machinery and the emancipation of the most 
powerful class, the clergy, which might be expected to 
carry on the work. 

Thus it was that the two projects, that for a Presby- 
terian sustentation fund and that for strengthening and 
completing a national, as opposed to a denominational 
educational system went hand in hand. Dr. McCosh never 
claimed to have originated either, but he took up both, 
and infused new vigor into them. The Sustentation 
Fund he saw established and increasing to such an extent 
as to assure him, before he left Ireland, that when the 
day of disestablishment came and the Eegium Donum 
was withdrawn, the Presbyterian Church would not be 
left crippled and inefficient. He was fond of recalling 
his co-laborers, Sinclair, Gibson, McClure, Hamilton, 



132 JAMES MCCOSH 

Kirk, and others, who were also his intimate and dear 
friends. His efforts in the cause of Intermediate Educa- 
tion brought him into contact, not only with these admir- 
able men, but also with others of even greater eminence. 
The Endowed Schools were all in the hands of the Irish 
(Episcopal) Established Cliurch ; consequently, both that 
body and the Eoman CathoKcs were opposed to any 
measures of reform which would strengthen Presby- 
terianism. Dr. McCosh wrote a widely circulated pam- 
phlet advocating the completion of the National System 
as inaugurated by Lord Derby. Although himself an 
integral part of it, he thought it imperfect. Nevertheless 
it seemed to him the best possible in a country so divided, 
and he took every opportunity of defending it, not only 
in its then existing form, but also in its proposed exten- 
sion. It was attacked on the ground of its irreligion, as 
being non-sectarian, and Mr. Gladstone, then prime minis- 
ter, sympathized with those who brought the charge. 
To Dr. McCosh it seemed that for the sake of diffusing 
education throughout the country it would be well to 
take the risk of not providing a sufficient religious train- 
ing in government institutions, leaving home and church 
to supplement the school. The more earnest he became, 
the more he was brought into prominence, and finally he 
was a champion, making frequent journeys, first to Dublin 
and then to London, in behalf of his cause. This threw 
him into closer contact with those who had before been 
friendly acquaintances, — with Mr. Kirk of Keady, with 
Sir Hugh Cairns, then member of Parliament for Belfast, 
with Lord Dufferin, and with Lord Meath. The result 
of their united efforts was to save the National System 
for many years. This success has been one of the factors 



PUBLIC LIFE IN IRELAND 133 

in the steady elevation of the Irish masses, and of their 
emancipation from the destructive superstition to which 
for so long they seemed bound. 

Of course Dr. McCosh was not forgotten in the land 
of his birth. In the spring of 1856, his tried and true 
friend, Dr. Guthrie, wrote gleefully that the directors of 
the Theological College of the Free Church in Glasgow 
needed a professor of Apologetics, and that their hopes 
were centred on the professor of Logic and Metaphysics 
in Queen's College, Belfast. " There stands Glasgow 
College," he said, " and I am for making the very best 
of it. You would make a grand professor, — no doubt 
of that. Then our Church would be much the better of 
your practical wisdom ; then we would get you among 
ourselves, no longer sundered by that abominable Irish 
Channel ; then I think you would like it to be engaged 
in the direct service of Christ and the Church." This 
was an honorable and attractive call, and as such re- 
quired serious consideration, the more so as some oppo- 
sition was speedily developed among the ultra-conserva- 
tives of the Free Church, "John Hieland; men," as Dr. 
Guthrie called them, and it might clearly be Dr. McCosh's 
duty to lead the opposition to a dangerous movement. 
But, after long and careful deliberation, the offer was 
declined in these words, which were read to the General 
Assembly on May 31, 1856 : 

About eight or nine years ago, after I had, in my own 
limited sphere, fought the cause of the Free Church, and 
when public matters had settled down into a quiet state, 
and my position locally was a little ambiguous, I had 
occasion, apart from all human counsel, to review myself, 



134 JAMES MCCOSH 

with the view of deciding (so far as man can decide) my 
future career. I came to the conclusion that, beside the 
ministerial office, which I was fond of, God gave me but 
one other means of usefulness, and that he had bestowed 
one, just one, special talent; and I resolved, instead of 
dividing my energies, which I had previously done, among 
several things, henceforth, after discharging my primary 
duties of preaching and visiting, to devote my remaining 
life, shorter or longer, to the cultivation of a Christian 
philosophy. In coming to this conclusion, I did not find 
it necessary to estimate the extent of my power in this 
respect ; it was enough for me that it seemed to be my gift 
bestowed by God, and to be used by me to His glory. I 
have adhered hitherto to that resolution, and hence my 
published works and my acceptance of the chair here ; and 
all my plans for years to come (if so spared, and if not 
spared, God may raise up a far fitter instrument) are in 
the same direction, and look to the establishment of a 
philosophy prosecuted in the inductive manner, resting 
on facts, and confirmatory or illustrative of true religion. 

But apparently the General Assembly had become con- 
vinced that they needed the man. In spite of Dr. 
McCosh's stand, he was formally elected " to be Professor of 
Apologetics and Theology in the Divinity Hall at Glasgow." 
The call seemed urgent, but the unwilling candidate knew 
himself better than his friends, and firmly declined. 

The fact was that Dr. McCosh's many activities had 
made him a personage in Great Britain as well as in Ire- 
land. One of his interests was the substitution of exami- 
nations for patronage in the appointment of candidates 
for the civil service. Having given important assistance 



PUBLIC LIFE IN lEELAND 135 

to that much-needed reform, he was one of the first chosen 
to be examiners. Among his associates were many men 
of great eminence in the world of philosophy. One of 
these was Principal Grant of Oxford, who said that Dr. 
McCosh's Moral Science Papers were considered by many 
to be the most judicious of all which were set, and most 
generously complimented his colleague on a result so 
satisfactory. This success was not strange, because in his 
hours of leisure the busy professor and philanthropist was 
acquiring a thorough knowledge of German, and was using 
it to become familiar with German philosophy. Without 
any rigid and enslaving division of his time he was never- 
theless so diligent and so versatile that he kept steadily 
onward in many different fields simultaneously. The 
British thinkers had just discovered the world of German 
learning, and constructive thought was no longer possible 
without some familiarity with it. McCosh was immersed 
in a new philosophical investigation, and determined to 
know what had been done on similar lines among Conti- 
nental thinkers. In a few years he became adept and to 
such a degree that his horizon was far wider than that of 
any except a very few of his contemporaries. Aware of 
all that had been accomplished in the home of Kant, it 
was a natural curiosity which prompted him to journey 
thither. Some account has already been given of the 
volume entitled " Typical Forms and Special Ends in 
Creation. " Dr. McCosh himself recalled its origin and 
fate as follows : 

As I walked or rode out in summer to visit my coun- 
try people, I looked at the trees and shrubs. Notwith- 
standing that these were so torn by the wind or by cattle, 



136 JAMES MCCOSII 

I noticed that there was some sort of order in their growth, 
and in the forms that they took. I had never studied 
botany, which was not in the College Course, and in Glas- 
gow and Edinburgh was taught in the summer when we 
had gone to our homes. Despite the difficulties I felt, 
I resolved to study the forms of plants, and made myself, 
if not a scientific botanist, at least an enthusiastic amateur, 
observing some fresh points which botanists had not 
noticed. I found that, when normally grown, the leaf 
resembled the tree, and that the branches took the same 
general shape. I saw that the venation of the leaf corre- 
sponded to the branches of the tree, and to its general 
ramification. I noticed, in particular, that the veins of 
the leaf went off at the same angles from the midrib as 
the branches did from the trunk, and as the smaller 
branches did from the larger ; that when the angle of the 
veins was narrow, the leaf became linear, and the whole 
tree and its branches also became linear : and that when 
the angle of the leaf was obtuse, the tree and its branches 
were also swollen out. I became intensely interested in 
these discoveries. The tree stood before me as a unity in 
its branches and in its branch lets and its leaves.-^ 

1 (Note by Professor Macloskie of Princeton.) " When Dr. McCosh's 
theory about leaves was first published (1851), it excited interest ; and it is 
summarized in Balfour's ' Classbook of Botany,' with some suggestions of 
difficulties because of variations of angles of ramification within the same 
plant. His argument has been reinforced, and has received scientific expla- 
nation by the discovery of the continuity of the tissues of leaf and stem. 
The leaf is now regarded as a projection in a plane surface of the stem, or 
branch, which bears it ; and their correspondence is not a matter of type but 
of genetic identity. This fact is demonstrated in Part II. of the splendid 
Memoir of Gravis on the Vegetative Organs of Urtica Dioica (1886), which 
was crowned by the Royal Academy of Belgium. Since the branches are 
a fragmentation or tributary system of the mother-stem, the results of 
Gravis's investigations amount to an indorsement of McCosh's theory." 



PUBLIC LIFE IN IRELAND 137 

Surrounded by these objects I went out to my parish 
work, and addressed the people with additional zest from 
having such proofs of the order of the works of the God 
I served. I did not know German at that time ; but I 
turned to the ordinary botanical works in English, and 
could find no traces of such a correspondence of leaf and 
plant being known. 1 sought the acquaintance of Dr. 
Balfour, professor of Botany in the University of Edin- 
burgh, and was encouraged by him in my researches. I 
read a paper before the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, 
and another paper before the British Association for the 
Advancement of Science. They listened to me very re- 
spectfully ; but they were afraid to commit themselves to 
my views. I remember that one of them thought that 
the branches of the tree, instead of going out according to 
strict mathematical law, went out as they best could. 
Others looked on my discovery as a pleasant fancy. I 
challenged my critics to go with me into any botanic gar- 
den, and I convinced all who had the courage to go with 
me. 

Notwithstanding the doubts of British men of Sci- 
ence, I persevered in my researches in various countries, 
in different parts of Scotland, in some parts of England 
and Germany, and on the High Alps. 

I had the happiness of securing the concurrence of 
my colleague. Dr. Dickie of Queen's College, Belfast. 
My views, meanwhile, of the order of nature were en- 
larging. Dr. Dickie and I agreed to publish a joint book 
on "Typical Forms and Special Ends in Creation," in 
which was expounded the general order which runs 
through Creation, while we showed that there were 
special ends served in the different organs of plants. 



138 JAMES MCCOSH 

We expected that this would be a contribution to 
natural theology. 

When I went to Berlin in 1858, I took this volume 
with me, and presented copies of it to such men as 
Alexander von Humboldt and Professor Braun. I have 
referred elsewhere to the reception given to it by Hum- 
boldt. I was delighted to find that the views I pre- 
sented of the forms of plants were already familiar to 
Dr. Braun and others, and that Dr. Braun had given to 
his views a mathematical organization, such as I had not 
done. I confess that along with my joy there was a 
slight mortification that I could not claim the discovery, 
which had been previously made by certain German 
botanists. From this date I gave less time to my botani- 
cal researches, as I knew that the interesting views which 
I had presented would be preserved. 

Dr. McCosh's travels on the Continent have fortunately 
been described by himself. His first journey to America, 
though preliminary to the most momentous change of 
his life, he briefly mentions. Before giving his account 
of both we may be permitted to give the record of a few 
more incidents of his Belfast life. Among other distin- 
guished Scotchmen who had been interested in his career 
was the Duke of Argyll. They had met frequently and 
corresponded with more or less regularity as topics of 
common interest arose in the world of thought. To this 
friendship was due one of the professor's greatest social 
pleasures which he thus described: 

I have not had much intercourse with the aristocracy 
of the Old World. With one family, however, I was in- 



PUBLIC LIFE IN IRELAND 139 

timate, that of Viscount, afterwards Earl, Dufferin, and 
now Marquis of Dufferin. His mansion "Clandeboy" was 
within eleven miles of Belfast. He was a descendant of 
the great orator Sheridan, a graduate of Oxford, and of a 
fine literary taste. He had more special tact than any 
man I have known, — a tact, springing not from cunning 
or deceit, but from a keen sympathy with those he met 
with, and a desire to gratify them. I believe I owe my 
acquaintanceship with him to a good word spoken in my 
behalf by the Duke of Argyll. 

He was anxious in his retired place to have some 
literary intercourse. He kept what he called a prophet's 
chamber for me, and often invited me to dine and spend 
a day or two with him. He was laying out his demesne, 
grading it, and forming small lakes, and, as I was fond of 
these pursuits, he consulted me at times. He provided a 
good horse for me, and we rode, often galloped, over his 
extensive grounds. 

He entertained a large amount of company, and I 
met with a kind of people whom I did not usually fall 
in with, — noblemen and artists ; and it was a new life 
to the abstract metaphysician. He honored me on one 
occasion by inviting me to meet Earl Carlisle, at that 
time Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. There was a very 
distinguished company, and they all placed me on an 
equality with themselves. Earl Carlisle drew particu- 
larly toward me, and we talked much on religious and 
literary topics. Ever afterwards I was invited to pay my 
respects to him at the Castle when I visited Dublin, and 
was commonly asked to dinner. 

At Clandeboy all was becoming. Every morning 
there was family worship, in which all the household 



140 JAMES MCCOSH 

was assembled. His Lordship conducted it himself, even 
when the Bishop of Down and Conner was present. 

One day as we were riding in the park, after a gallop 
we loosened reins, and were walking leisurely. I had the 
courage or impertinence to say to him ; " My Lord, I fear 
you are not fulfilling the end of your life." He looked at 
me sternly, and asked me somewhat imperiously what I 
meant. I told him that I said what I meant, and meant 
what I said. I told him that he had high talents and 
accomplishments ; that he had extensive patrimonial in- 
fluence in his descent, and extensive property, and that 
something great and good was expected of him. " But 
what," he asked, "do you expect of me?" I at once 
answered that I expected him to devote himself to states- 
manship. He inquired thoughtfully and earnestly, "Do 
you think I have the talents for this work ? " I answered 
him that I thought he had, and that he had only to de- 
vote himself to the work to do much good, and rise to 
distinction. We rode very leisurely the rest of the way 
to the castle. It was evident that he was thinking ear- 
nestly. I know not for certain whether this conversation 
had any influence on his future career, but very soon 
after he was deep in political affairs. He was sent out 
to Syria to quell a disturbance. I congratulated him on 
his return on his success in pacifying Syria. "Yes," said 
he, "as the sand of the desert is pacified till the next 
breeze." I did not wonder when this youth rose to be 
Governor of Canada, and then Governor of India, in 
both of which positions both he and his most estimable 
lady did much good. I may be allowed to add that it 
was thus that I dealt with my higher students, and often 
stirred them up to high efforts in their various vocations. 



PUBLIC LIFE IN IRELAND 141 

His mother, a granddaughter of Brinsley Sheridan, 
commonly lived with him. I never knew a son more 
attached to a mother. I remember on one occasion of 
his taking me into a quiet room where there was a por- 
trait of his mother ; and then how he devoted an hour to 
pouring out his affection, and reciting her high qualities. 
I believe that he regularly devoted such an hour — a 
sacred one — to meditation on his mother. 

After Lord Dufferin was launched upon his distinguished 
career, he appears to have cherished the memory of his 
acquaintance with Dr. McCosh, and among the latter's 
papers is a letter requesting an opinion on the then absorb- 
ing question of intermediate education. There are also 
many charming and intimate letters from the Duke of 
Argyll, whose correspondence ceased only with the close 
of his friend's life. The following is characteristic of the 
relations which existed between them : 

Machaeioch House, Campbelltown, 
Sept. 21, 1867. 

My dear Dr. McCosh, — The sight of the Belfast 
hills from this coast, as well as the paper you lately 
sent me containing a letter from you on the Endow- 
ment question, remind me that I have not yet thanked 
you for your very kind review and criticism on the 
Eeign of Law. I received it when in the thick of the 
Eeform Discussions in Parliament, and I laid it aside 
till I should have some leisure to read it with care. 
Since I came to Scotland I have been as busy as out-of- 
door pursuits would allow me in preparing an opening 
address for the Young Men's Christian Association in 
Glasgow, and this I have just completed. 



142 JAMES MCCOSH 

It gave me great pleasure to find that on the whole our 
agreement is so great on the questions raised respecting 
"Law in the Kealm of Mind." I think that substan- 
tially we are at one, and I find this impression strength- 
ened as I read more carefully over again your excellent 
metaphysical works. 

I hope during this winter to be able to devote some 
time to a revised edition (the fifth) of the Eeign of Law, 
when I shall take advantage of the notes so kindly sup- 
plied to me by you. 

I am afraid I must avow on the other hand, substan- 
tial disagreement with you on the Endowment question. 
I think indeed that " Free churches are the future of the 
world," and that the upshot of present controversies will 
be a general severance of churches from Endowment; 
but though this result may at any time be rapidly 
precipitated, yet in the ordinary course of events it is 
still a long way ahead of us. But what I clearly hold 
is that " the state " is not a person, with the same duties 
and obligations as an individual; and that there is no 
violation of any duty in the payment of more churches 
than one, should other considerations, or existing facts, 
recommend such a course. 

It seems to me as clear a proposition as any proposi- 
tion can be that money derived from a common fund to 
which men of all creeds contribute, not only may, but 
ought to be divided on a common and not on an exclu- 
sive principle of distribution. The state is nothing but 
an aggregate of individuals, and if they are divided be- 
tween (what you or I may deem) truth and error, so 
likewise must be the influence they exert in matters of 
religion. I confess I do not think it just — consistent 



PUBLIC LIFE IN IRELAND 143 

with that primary virtue which Christianity enforces 
as much as any dogma — that all the funds provided 
by ancient laws for pious uses in Ireland should be 
appropriated exclusively to the pious use of a small 
minority of the People. "Would the Irish "state," if it 
were separate, tolerate this distribution ? 

Pray let me have your paper, — to be read before the 
S. S. Association. 

Argyll. 



CHAPTER X 

AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL. — TRAVELS IN GERMANY 
AND AMERICA 

TT was on the afternoon of Tuesday, May 18, 1858, 
that I sailed from Leith on a steamer bound for 
Hamburg. I had better spare the details of a voyage 
by no means pleasant, in a strong, clumsy vessel fitted 
for freight rather than passengers, vigorously ploughing 
its way through terribly angry waves, bent on tossing us 
up and down on our berths, and pulling our stomachs into 
as agitated a state as they themselves were. For our 
comfort, the stewardess informed us that she had never 
been out on so fearful a night except once, when one of 
the ships of their line had been wrecked. It is curious 
that on such occasions our feeling is apt to be callous- 
ness. All next day we were in the midst of fearfully 
agitated waves, which would have looked grand if we 
could have calmly contemplated them. Beyond them 
the piercing eye could discover no land on the British 
or Continental sides. On the third day, the wind was 
in a balmy humor, and the sea, his passion exhausted, 
was rocking himself, like a passionate child, to rest. 
Passing some interesting villages we arrived at Hamburg 
on Thursday night. 

Perhaps the most eminent man in intellectual philoso- 
phy in Berlin, at the time, was Professor Trendelenburg. I 
attended some of his lectures. His class, which amounted 



TRAVELS IN GERMANY AND AMERICA 145 

to only thirty-three, met at a quarter past the hour, — 
this seems the custom in Germany. He came in quick, 
— a tall, thin, somewhat ungainly, intellectual-looking 
man. He mumbled so fast, and in so low a tone, that 
I scarcely heard him, and did not fully understand him. 
One-half of his students were languid, and took no 
notes. He is an Aristotelian, and has written fully on 
the Categories. He invited me to his house, and was 
very kind to me. I got much instruction from him. 
For scholarship he may be regarded as the Sir William 
Hamilton of Berlin, but he had not the impetuosity 
of the Scotchm.an. He did much to undermine the 
supremacy of Hegel. 

The most striking metaphysician I met with in Berlin 
was Michelet. He was first pupil and then assistant to 
the great speculator Hegel. He was an extreme and 
decided pantheist. He wore spectacles, had rough hair, 
and had on a somewhat ungainly dress. He began his 
lectures before he sat down, and after he sat down he 
rose up as if by impulse. In delivering his lecture, he 
was now sitting and now standing, waving his hands 
in all directions, now touching his head with them, and 
now whirling them all around. His face was now grave 
and earnest, and anon covered with smiles. The attend- 
ance in all was only twenty-one, and not more than half 
of them took notes, but a few big-brained, bewildered- 
looking fellows drank in the whole discourse greedily. 
His utterance was clear, and I understood him thor- 
oughly. He showed that all things are identical, — God 
and the world, you and me, truth and error. It would 
have been amusing, had it not been melancholy, to hear 
a mature man uttering such extravagances. He has for- 

10 



146 JAMES MCCOSH 

tunately outlived his day, and now there are few even in 
Germany who believe in him. I got from him a list of 
late philosophic works, all of them of a low tendency. 

After visiting the graveyard together, we drove out 
to Charlottenburg. There we saw the monument to 
the late King and Queen, — the patriotic Queen who 
resisted so vigorously the inroads of Napoleon. This is 
the finest monument to the dead I have ever seen. The 
repose is so perfect, — "She is not dead, but sleepeth." 
We returned to the city in an omnibus. We had carried 
on the philosophic discussion all this time. Two ladies 
in the omnibus joined in it. They had seen me at some 
religious meeting, and probably knew who Michelet was, 
and they attacked the Hegelian philosophy, and de- 
fended Christianity very keenly. Being very wearied 
I gave up the discussion to them, and sat rejoicing in 
it, the more pleasantly as I found that the ladies dis- 
comfited the philosopher. On coming into the city he 
took me into a cool restaurant. I had been obliged to 
think in English, to translate it into German, and turn 
the answer back into English. I retired to my hotel 
towards one in the morning, so completely exhausted 
that it was not till next morning that I understood the 
message left me by Graf von Goltz, Secretary to the 
King, offering me a seat in his box in the theatre on 
the next Sabbath evening. I hastened to explain to the 
Count my conscientious convictions against theatre-go- 
ing on the Sabbath, and had difficulty in making him 
understand me. On that Sabbath evening it was said 
there was a masked ball in the city, with an attendance 
of thirty thousand. 

I also got acquainted with Hengstenberg, an eminent 



TRAVELS IN GERMANY AND AMERICA 147 

evangelical divine at tliat time. He, like most other 
distinguished men, had an hour, a Stunde, for receiving 
visitors. I went at the hour, and found him walking 
up and down his garden at the rate of at least four 
miles an hour. I joined him, and we talked of English 
theology. He approved of the Puseyism, and high 
churchism at that time prevalent in England, and fight- 
ing with the rationalism. I could not agree with him, 
as I believe the Komanist tendency leads intelligent 
young men to scepticism, which, as its blankness is 
discovered, drives people to high churchism. I found 
Hengstenberg very impetuous, and we had not much 
pleasant intercourse. 

The best known physical philosopher in Germany at 
the time was Alexander von Humboldt; Dr. Sydow 
introduced me to him. At the time he was living with 
the King at Potsdam ; but in a few days he came into 
town, and it was arranged that I should meet with him 
at his house. He received me most graciously, giving 
me a seat of honor while he sat beside me. He was 
rather a small but handsome man, with not a very large, 
but decidedly marked head. He asked in what language 
I should wish him to speak, German, French, or English. 
I told him that I would understand him either in German 
or French if he spoke slowly, but would take it as a com- 
pliment if he spoke in English. Upon this he immedi- 
ately addressed me in my own tongue, with a slightly 
German accent ; bat his English flowed easily and grace- 
fully, and was thoroughly correct grammatically and 
idiomatically. The story in Berlin was that he was 
learning his thirtieth language to keep his mind from 
failing. I had sent a copy of my work on "Typical 



148 JAMES MCCOSII 

Forms in Creation and Special Ends " to him, and I was 
specially anxious to know what was his opinion of my 
theory of the forms of plants, — that there was a beautiful 
correspondence between the form of the tree and its 
several branches on the one hand, and of the leaf and its 
leaf-stalks on the other. He told me that he had noticed 
the correspondence, but added that he thought he had 
discovered two exceptions, one a South American plant 
which I had never seen, the other the Portugal laurel. 
I explained to him how I could reconcile to my view 
certain forms which seemed to be exceptions. Upon this 
he at once declared that I had established my point, and 
added, " You may say that I think so to any one." On 
getting this sanction, I stopped giving so much time to 
my botanical observations, and turned towards psychical 
studies, which were ever my favorite ones. 

After having been with Humboldt a quarter of an 
hour, and gained my practical end, I proposed to depart ; 
but he would not allow me. He insisted on my remain- 
ing with him some time longer. We discussed all sorts 
of topics secular and sacred. 

He passed on to discourse of the injurious imputations 
which had been cast on his religious principles by certain 
Jesuits, and in doing so, spoke in terms of strong indig- 
nation of the way in which the great German Leibnitz 
had sought to prejudice the Electress of Brandenburg 
against the English Newton, because of the supposed 
irreligious tendencies of his works. He branched off into 
the latest discoveries in science ; showed me curious 
natural objects which he had picked up in various parts 
of the world , and he encouraged me to speak of religion 
and of the reconciling work of the Saviour. 



TRAVELS m GERMANY AND AMERICA 149 

Finding that I was going to Heidelberg, and that I 
would there see Bunsen,^ he sent through me his warm 
regards to him. " You are going to visit Bunsen," he 
said ; " you must by all means do so ; " and he proceeded 
to speak of him in the language of the greatest admira- 
tion and affection, adding, " I do not understand some of 
his writings, but I have formed the very highest opinion 
of his Bibelwerk." It is not for one who had so imper- 
fect an acquaintance with Humboldt as I had to attempt 
to reconcile what he said to me with harsh expressions 
about Bunsen, scattered throughout his letters to 
Varnhagen. Were his feelings toward Bunsen softened 
in his later days, or was he rejoicing in the Bibelwerk 
because he saw that it would further very different ends 
from those contemplated by Bunsen ? 

In speaking of the controversy going on between 
Brewster and Whewell as to the plurality of worlds with 
living inhabitants, he expressed his astonishment that 
Whewell should have taken up the position so perversely, 
of denying that the planets and stars must be inhabited. 
He thought it very unreasonable to suppose that God 
should have left so many material bodies uninhabited. 
I regarded him as here expressing unequivocally his 
belief in the existence of the good God. 

On parting he held my hands for several minutes, and 
I pressed him strongly with the obligations and privi- 
leges of the gospel. 

It was on the afternoon of Tuesday, August 4, that I 
waited on Bunsen at his pleasant villa, near Heidelberg, 
with a letter of introduction, with which I had been 

1 Christian Karl Josias, Clievalier von . . . The distinguished scholar 
and diplomatist. 



150 JAMES MCCOSH 

favored, from the Duke of Argyll, a special friend of 
Bunseu's. As I went up to his residence, a carriage 
passed out having in it a gentleman of a singularly grave 
and noble countenance, and I was sure this must be 
Bunsen himself. ISTot finding him at home, I left my 
card and introductions, and in the same evening I had a 
kind letter^ from him, inviting me to visit him next day, 
and pressing me to give him as much of my time as 
possible. Next day I secured my first interview with 
him, and on each successive day, to the Sunday following, 
inclusive, I waited on him by appointment, at dinner, 
or for coffee, or for tea, and on each occasion had length- 
ened conversations with him. 

And what a talker ! Interesting as many of his writ- 
ings are, they are not nearly so much so as was his con- 
versation. The man himself was an object of the 
highest interest to all who could appreciate him. With 
a head that rose like a dome, he had a heart from which 
there glowed a genial heat as from a domestic fire. He 
talked of education in Germany and in England, of re- 
ligion, of theology, of philosophy, of the state of the 

1 Charlottbnbukq, 5th Aug. 1858. 

Dear Sir, — Although I hope to see you this afternoon at 3 o'clock, 
as you kindly promised to my daughter yesterday, I cannot wait so long 
to bid you a hearty welcome at Heidelberg I I have so long wished to 
know you personally (as the Duchess of Argyll, our common kind friend, 
knows) that I am desirous of securing as much of your time as you can 
bestow upon Charlottenburg. 

If you make a prolonged stay, I will not monopolize you, but if you 
should remain here only to-day and to-morrow, I hope you will have your 
tea with us at h. p. seven both days 

The most remarkable establishment here is Bunsen's great Laboratory, 
the greatest, I understand, in Europe. You will find in my very learned 
and acute (only a little deaf) cousin a man whose simplicity equals his 
science. Yours sincerely, 

BCNSEH. 



TRAVELS IN GERMANY AND AMERICA 151 

Romish aud Protestant Churches on the Contment, and 
interspersed the grand theoretical views which he de- 
lighted to expound with anecdotes of kings, statesmen, 
philosophers, and theologians of the highest name, with 
whom he had been intimate. But his noble enthusiasm 
ever kindled into the brightest flame when he spread out 
before me his own intended works, as illustrative of the 
Bible, of philosophy and history, and as fitted to help on 
the education of the race. I have met with many tal- 
ented men, with many good men, with not a few men of 
genius ; but 1 have had the privilege of holding confiden- 
tial intercourse with only three whom I reckoned " great 
men." One, the greatest, I think — Dr. Chalmers — ever 
rises up before my memory as a mountain, standing fair, 
and clear, and large. The second, Hugh Miller, rises as 
a bold, rocky promontory, covered all over with number- 
less plants of wild exquisite beauty. The tliird, Bunsen, 
stretches out before me wide, and lovely, and fertile, — 
like the plains of Lombardy which I had just passed 
through before visiting him. 

I have referred to the fondness with which he dwelt on 
his contemplated publications. He was now, in his retire- 
ment, to give to the world the views on all subjects — 
historical, philosophical, and theological — which had 
burst upon him in their freshness when he spent so many 
of his youthful years in Eome. I confess, however, that, 
deeply interested as I was in his speculations, — as these 
came forth with such a warmth and radiance from his 
own lips, — I had all the while an impression that he 
would require to live to an antediluvian age in order to 
commit all his theories to writing, and also a very strong 
conviction that his views belonged to the past age rather 



152 JAMES MCCOSH 

than to the present, and that some of them would not, 
in fact, promote the cause of religion which he had so 
much at heart. It ever came out, that he drew no dis- 
tinction between the natural and preternatural. He was 
a firm believer in mesmerism and clairvoyance (in favor 
of them he mentioned some circumstances which seemed 
to me to have no evidential value), and was apt to 
connect them with the inspiration of the writers of the 
Bible.i 

He talked in terms of intense affection of Alexander 
von Humboldt, with whom I had had some intercourse 
a short time before. On my reporting to Bunsen how 
kindly Humboldt had spoken of him, he said, "I am 
bringing out a certain portion of my Bibelwerk before 
other parts which should come earlier, in order that it 
may fall under the eye of Humboldt ere he is removed 
from us." The way he said this showed the great love 
he had for Humboldt; and he intimated pretty plainly 
that he hoped the part of the Bibelwerk to which he 
referred might help to draw Humboldt towards deeper 
religious convictions. 

Whether any such end was accomplished, I have no 
means of knowing. I have doubts as to whether the 
means were fitted to attain the object fondly desired, 
for Bunsen was already in a very ambiguous position 
in his own country. Eespected and beloved by all, — 
except the enemies of civil and religious liberty, — his 

^ In Schleiermacher's letters, -vvritteu in 1817 (Life, translated by F. 
Rowan, p. 260), the writer says of animal magnetism : " My opinion, 
in regard to the nature of these mental phenomena, and to their truth, is 
this : any distinction between the natural and supernatural, between the 
comprehensible and the incomprehensible, I do not, upon the whole, 
recognize." 



TRAVELS IN GERMANY AND AMERICA 153 

speculations, philosophical or theological, carried, I found, 
very little weight in Germany. The great divines of the 
orthodox school, while they loved him for his piety, just 
regretted the more that in his opinions as to the authen- 
ticity and inspiration of the Old Testament he was adher- 
ing to views which had been very prevalent in the earlier 
part of the century, but had been for years abandoned by 
all who had given their attention to the subject. The 
rationalists, who, in the days of their strength, had hated 
Bunsen for his warm evangelical piety, were rejoicing, 
now that the tide was against them, that they had in 
him an unconscious auxiliary in their work of under- 
mining the inspiration of the Bible; but they set no 
value whatever on his own speculations and opinions. 
His venerated name is being extensively used by the 
rationalists of this country ; it is right that they should 
know that he ever spoke of rationalism in terms of 
strongest disapprobation and aversion, and he wished it 
to be known everywhere that he identified himself with 
the living evangelical piety of Britain. While Bunsen 
was able to retain his piety, in spite of the vagueness 
and wanderings of his speculative opinions, it is difficult 
to see how any young man, trained in Bunsen's creed, 
could ever rise to a belief in the Saviour. 

What I have now said indicates pretty clearly the 
state of theological belief of late years in Germany. The 
rationalists of the two last ages, though their immediate 
power was restricted to their students in the universities, 
had yet, through them, as they were scattered over the 
country, spread a most baleful influence, resulting in a 
general disregard of religion among all classes, beginning 
with the educated, and going down to the lowest. But 



154 JAMES MCCOSH 

since 1848, — when the country became alarmed at the 
extremes to which infidelity led, — there has been a 
slight reaction in favor of orthodox doctrine and evan- 
gelical sentiments. This has been specially felt by 
students aimmg at the pastoral office, who have very 
much abandoned the old rationalistic and Hegelian pro- 
fessors, and are crowding the class-rooms of those who 
defend the inspiration of Scripture, and the old doctrines 
of salvation by the Cross of Christ. The great German 
theologians of the age now passing away, and of the 
present age, have, with unmatched erudition and pro- 
found speculative ability, defended the Bible from the 
assaults made upon it; and as it was from Germany we 
got the bane, so it is from Germany, or rather from Eng- 
lish writers who can use the stores of German learning, 
that we must look for the antidote. 

But to return to Bunsen. I am able to say — what I 
believe I can say of no other with whom I had so much 
intercourse — that we never conversed during these five 
days, for ten minutes at a time, without his returning, 
however far he might be off, to his Bible and his Saviour, 
as the objects that were evidently the dearest to him. 
Some of my British readers will be astonished when I 
have to add, that one evening he told me that he " was 
not sure about allowing that God is a Being, and that he 
certainly could not admit that God is a Person." The 
question will be asked, "How was it possible for one 
entertaining such theoretical views to love his God and 
Saviour, as Bunsen seemed to love them, supremely ? " 
Having a considerable acquaintance with the Hegelian 
philosophy, and having only a short time before listened 
to the lectures of some of the most devoted disciples "of 



TRAVELS IN GERMANY AND AMERICA 155 

that school, I think I can understand this inconsistency, 
though I would never think of defending it. Bunsen 
had been trained in the first quarter of this century, 
when Schelling and Hegel (of whom he always spoke 
with profound admiration) ruled in the universities, and 
he had so lost himself in ideal distinctions and nomen- 
clature that his words were not to be interpreted as if 
the same expressions had been used by another man. 
He was forever talking, in Kantian phraseology, of the 
forms of space and time. I labored to show that there 
were other intuitive convictions in the mind as well as 
those of space and time, and, in particular, that we all 
had an immediate consciousness of ourselves as persons, 
and that this conscious personality, duly followed out, 
raised our minds to the contemplation of God as a Being 
and a Person. One evening, in his house, I thought I 
had shut him up to a point, but the conversation was 
interrupted by the breaking up of the large company, 
and I had not another opportunity of taking up the 
subject.^ 

The following letter written to Mrs. McCosh from 
Berlin is inserted here at the risk of repetition, being as 

1 INVEEART, Sept. 2, 1858. 

Dear Dr. McCosh, — It gave the Duchess and myself much pleasure 
to receive your note, showing that you had so fully appreciated one of the 
most remarkable men of our age. You would probably not fail to dis- 
cover the wide difference between Bunsen's views on many points and the 
popular theology of all the British churches. A vague sense of the dif- 
ference has always attracted a certain amount of jealousy and suspicion 
to him in this country, but no man can be with him without feeling that 
he is — what you describe. 

I am, dear Dr. McCosh, 

Yours very truly, 

Akgyll. 



156 JAMES MCCOSH 

it is so interesting in itself and so characteristic of the 
writer's keenness in observation: — 

Beelin, Thursday, June 17, 1858. 

My Dear Isabella, — Yesterday I received your letter 
with Councillor Gibson's inclosed, and to-day his pamphlet 
has arrived. I am delighted to hear that the question of 
intermediate education is being kept alive. I could not 
write prior to the Board meeting, but will answer his 
note soon. 

I proceed to make you acquainted with some other per- 
sons I have met with since I wrote you. I had better finish 
off the Divines. I called on Hengstenberg at his hour 
for receiving calls, four to five, and found him walking 
up and down his garden at the rate of four miles an hour, 
and those who wished to converse with him were ex- 
pected to walk along side of him. A succession of young 
men came in and encompassed him on each side and 
behind. I found that his son, who visited Ireland and 
lived with Professor Gibson, and was in my house, was 
here on a visit from his parish in a country town, and I 
conversed with him. In the short conversation I had 
with the father he spoke against the British members of 
the Evangelical Alliance for favoring Bunsen. I told him 
that in Britain Bunsen was much beloved personally, 
but that his theology and philosophy had little influence ; 
that Dr. Hengstenberg himself had greater influence, 
and that his influence was for good, inasmuch as he 
brought men back to the study of the "Word. As he has 
a strong tendency to high churchism, I told him that in 
Oxford the younger men in the natural recoil were be- 
coming naturalists. He asked where I lived, but neither 
he nor his son has returned my call. 



TRAVELS IN GERMANY AND AMERICA 157 

From Trendelenburg, the greatest logician here, I have 
received much kindness. I told you that I heard him 
lecture. On calling on him with a letter from Thomson 
of Oxford he asked me to his house, and I went at eight 
in the evening. His wife is a thin, retiring, kind lady. 
She had been a short time in the scientific Mrs. Somer- 
yille's family, and gave me some anecdotes of that lady, 
all showing how humble and Christian she is. There 
were three daughters present, half between girlhood and 
womanhood, bashful and somewhat awkward. A few 
students had been invited for the same evening, and sat 
on the one side of the table, and the young ladies on the 
other ; the latter cordially enjoyed the scene, and looked 
and whispered to one another knowingly, but scarcely 
ever took part in the general conversation. As eatables, 
I had first presented to me sour curds with the mouldered 
black bread of Germany, and sugar to mix with them. 
I took some, and found it palatable enough ; then we had 
weak tea in very small cups, and the offer of little slices 
of ham, which I declined. Dr. Trendelenburg talked at 
times to me, and at times to his students, and when he 
was occupied with the latter I conversed with Frau Pro- 
fessor (be sure when you come to Germany to give people 
their proper title). I asked where she went in the holi- 
days — alas — the holidays of her boys were in summer, 
and of Dr. Trendelenburg in autumn, and he was so busy 
she seldom had any opportunity to leave town. I left a 
little after eleven, pleased with my evening. I came 
home with a law student. He told me he would have 
to serve a whole year as a soldier, and this at his own 
expense. All young men must, between eighteen and 
twenty-three serve three years for pay or one year for 



158 JAMES Mccosri 

nothing. He spoke of the soldiers as spreading immo- 
rality. I confess that they do not appear to be so im- 
moral as our own. As we crossed the Unter-den-linden, 
we saw great floods of people coming home from the 
gardens beyond the gates ; men and women, old and 
young, and certainly all were conducting themselves 
most appropriately. 

Lest you complain that my friends are too learned, I 
will now introduce you to a very different person. I long 
hesitated whether to deliver Lord Dufferin's letter to Graf 
von Goltz, who is Aide-de-camp, Adjutant-General, and 
chief friend to the Prince of Prussia, brother to the king, 
and now, in fact, sovereign, as the elder brother's mind 
seems hopelessly gone. At last I picked up courage and 
presented myself. Never man got a warmer reception ! 
What could he do for me ! He would make his servant 
go round with me ! He would take me to the theatre 
and opera on Sabbath ! He would introduce me to a 
gentleman who had made Shakespeare the study of his life ! 
I was determined not to go to the theatre ; determined 
especially to keep the Sabbath as I keep it at home. I 
did not know well what to say, but I turned off the con- 
versation to some things I wanted to see. He told me 
he would call on me, and I bolted off. Not wishing to have 
another talk about Sabbath theatricals, I actually left my 
hotel at the hour I expected him to call. When I came 
in I found he had been here, and I was congratulating 
myself upon my cleverness in avoiding him. I thought 
myself as clever as the preacher in Greyfriars who, when 
he went out of [anglice, forgot] his sermon in the pulpit, 
pretended to faint and had to be carried out into the vestry 
where, when all the people had left him except a few, he 



TRAVELS IN GERMANY AND AMERICA 159 

opened liis eyes and said, " Have I not done this cleverly ? " 
But I was premature in my vanity, for the count left a 
message that he was sorry he had missed me, that he had 
been summoned to Potsdam to wait on the Prince, but 
that he had handed me over to Dr. Firmerich, who would 
expect me " Nach Mittag " on Sunday. Here I was in a 
fix, and my first idea was to write Dr. Firmerich, but this 
was formidable, so I put a bold face on it, and after being 
at church in the forenoon, and taking dinner, I slipped 
over to Dr. Firmerich's, and found him a most gentle- 
manly and accomplished man, and his wife a most de- 
lightful creature. I let them know at once that I had 
not come to Berlin to see plays, told them how the Scotch 
people read their Bibles on Sabbath. Like a thorough 
gentleman, he saw my meaning and intimated he would 
call on me the next day. This he did, and he gave me 
two hours of his time ; took me to the office of public 
instruction, one of the great government offices ; intro- 
duced me to Dr. Schultze, the acting minister of educa- 
tion, who told me to use his name and visit any school 
in Prussia ; talked most volubly of the system, to which I 
said " Ja " now and then, though I did not understand 
one-half ; told me where to get documents, and promised 
to answer any inquiries I might make at any future time. 
I must call once more on Dr. Firmerich, as his lady lent 
me a book. 

After this interview with the nobility, you must allow 
me to go back to the scientific gentlemen. I have been 
a good deal with Professor Braun, the great botanist, a 
kind, benevolent old man. He drove me on Saturday 
last to the Botanic Garden, where we would have spent 
a few pleasant hours, but we were overtaken with a 



160 JAMES MCCOSH 

dreadful thunderstorm with impetuous rain, which drove 
us home sooner. The Botanic Garden has an immense 
collection, but is greatly huddled. This afternoon at 
four he took me to the meeting of the Academy of 
Science, where I saw the most distinguished scientific 
men in Berlin, such as Dove; the two Eoses (one of 
them, the chemist, like Grattan but with a bigger head) ; 
Mitscherlich, a big-bellied old man ; Du Bois Eeymond, a 
fiery-looking, rising physiologist; Poggendorff; Encke, 
who gave a name to a comet. I did not understand the 
papers read, and had time to look at the men and at a 
bust of Leibnitz, the founder of the Academy, and who 
has the fullest head I ever saw. Professor Braun took 
me home with him for an hour, and showed me books 
and papers of his own and others, and I am satisfied 
that he anticipated me many years in his discoveries as 
to the spirals of cones. 

I think I told you that Sydow proposed of his own 
accord to introduce me to Baron von Humboldt, the man 
of greatest scientific reputation now living. I thought 
it best to give Sydow a copy of " Typical Forms " to 
present to him. And here I may as well mention that 
on the forenoon of Sabbath last I went to the Neue 
Kirche to hear Sydow. His audience could not be more 
than two hundred and fifty and of them two thirds were 
females. He is a very able man, but his preaching was 
not the simple gospel as we understand it, and hence, I 
suspect, the thinness of his audience. After the public 
service there was a baptism in the vestry at which I was 
present. A good many ceremonies are added. Five men 
and one woman put their hands on the feet of the child, 
and took an obligation. There was more than one cross- 



TRAVELS IN GERMANY AND AMERICA , 161 

ing; in particular, the water was sprinkled with three 
crossings as the names of the persons of the Trinity were 
pronounced. After the baptism we returned to the 
church, where was a marriage before the altar ; it was 
done with rings, the minister blessing the couple as he 
laid his hands on them. 

But to return to Humboldt, Sydow told me that the 
old Baron had been at Potsdam, but that he had ap- 
pointed Tuesday at one to meet me. On Tuesday I was 
at his house at the very hour, entered a large gateway, 
and went up a stair as in all houses here, rang a bell. 
A servant appeared, and in a minute I was in the pres- 
ence of the venerable old man. He is a little man, with 
his chin leaning on his breast, but particularly lively in 
his countenance and manner. He told me that he was 
not strong, but strong enough to see me ; quite as strong 
as a man of eighty-nine could expect to be. " Typical 
Forms " was on the table ; he said he had been reading it, 
— so he expressed himself, — not only with pleasure, but 
with the highest admiration, and was struck with the 
large knowledge displayed in it, not only of what had 
been done in England but on the Continent. I told him 
I followed the inductive method, building my views on 
facts. " Yes," said he, " but there are fine generaliza- 
tions. . . . You are associated with another in the work," 
he said. " Yes," I said, " my colleague. Dr. Dickie, who 
has large scientific knowledge." " This is wise," said he, 
" for some of our German philosophers have committed 
great blunders from theorizing without knowing the 
facts." He agreed that there was a general conformity 
between venation and ramification, but doubted whether 
it held in every case, and instanced certain laurels. 

11 



162 JAMES MCCOSH 

Often had I measured the laurels, and told him so, and 
was on the point of disputing with him when I thought 
it better to stop. The conversation flowed on — Where 
was I going ? To the Ehine ? I would see Bunsen, and he 
spoke of Bunsen. He liked the first volume so far of his 
great work, but did not fully understand the second, but 
was deeply interested in his new work, the translation of 
the Bible. He took great pains to show me he was no 
materialist ; he thought materialism unphilosophical. He 
had been charged by the Jesuits with being a materialist, 
but it was wrong to bring such charges ; even Leibnitz had 
traduced the great Newton to the Electress of Brandenburg. 
He talked of Whewell, and the plurality of worlds ; thought 
it most accordant with his view of God's character that 
the worlds were inhabited, and might have many common 
bonds of union. I added they might have all some con- 
nection with the work of Christ. He spoke with fervor 
of the late discoveries as to the sun being the source of 
so much influence. He would have spoken much longer, 
but I thought it wrong to trouble him more, and rose. 
He held my hand in his, " But I hope you are not dis- 
satisfled with my religious views ! " I told him I was 
pleased to find him this very day speaking of God and I 
hoped also of Christ as connected with His works. I 
parted with him, but he followed me through the ante- 
rooms, and pointed me out curious things found in his 
wide travels. " You must call on Ehrenberg, and speak 
of your views, and say that Alexander von Humboldt 
sent you." He shook hands a second time at the door, 
and I found that I had enjoyed one-half hour of continu- 
ous talk from this eloquent old man. 

But you will be complaining that I am getting scien- 



TEAVELS m GERMANY AND AMERICA 163 

tific again. So I will conduct you to a very different 
scene, Mr. Solly, Lecturer on English Literature in the 
University, had asked me to go with him of an evening 
to a garden concert. I went at six to his house, and we 
walked, only a mile, into the Thiergarten. Then we 
entered the Concert Garden. The entrance cost us five 
pence each. ... I did not see a person, male or female, 
misbehave. It was a most pleasant German scene. . . . 

Dr. McCosh returned from Germany in September, 
1858. For eight years he led the regular, laborious life 
of his profession, and then desiring a thorough change 
he sailed for America. Throughout the war of the 
Eebellion he was a stanch supporter of the Union. His 
books had an extensive sale in the United States, 
and he was desirous of correcting by observation the 
many impressions he had derived from his extensive 
reading. His journey included the cities of New York, 
New Haven, Boston, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Baltimore, 
Washington, and Philadelphia. Besides he visited Har- 
vard, Yale, Princeton and many other institutions of 
learning. He has left only the following paragraphs 
as a record of this journey : 

I had conducted large classes through Logic and Meta- 
physics in Queen's College ; I had written and published 
my examination of Mr. John S. Mill's " Empirical Phil- 
osophy ; " I was wearied, and I put my feet into a ship to 
take me to America. I travelled some thousands of miles 
in that country, and visited some of the most important 
colleges and theological seminaries. But I am not to 
describe the scenes I looked on, — they are all known ; 



164 JAMES MCCOSH 

nor the persons I met with, and from whom I received 
kindness, such as the Eev. Dr. Adams, the Eev. Henry B. 
Smith, the Hodges, Mr. Carter the publisher, and others, 
all of whom have been described by others better than I 
could do it. I made, at the time, however, one or two 
general observations which may be of some value as 
coming from an impartial stranger. 

The first is that on attending the churches of various 
denominations, especially the Presbyterian, Episcopal, and 
Congregational, I was ever constrained to ask, " But 
where are the laboring classes ? " No doubt they were 
in many cases concealed by the circumstance that they 
often dressed as well as the classes above them in the 
social circle ; but it is certain that as a rule the working- 
classes do not join so heartily as in Great Britain and 
Ireland, with the middle and upper classes in public 
worship. I am afraid there is a greater separation of 
classes in the new and democratic than in the old and 
aristocratic countries. Though I have abandoned State 
Churches, yet I believe they tend to bring the rich and 
the poor classes together. In Brechin, Lord Panmure, 
with seventy thousand acres of arable land, including 
whole parishes of hill land, sat on the opposite side of a 
church passage, and could have shaken hands with a 
weaver earning two dollars a week. The Americans will 
need to learn a lesson from the history of the Church 
from early times, and mix somewhat of the territorial 
with the congregational system. 

Another observation made by me was that the colleges, 
while they had not the prestige nor the consolidation 
of the European ones in such departments as classics 
and mathematics, had nevertheless a better capacity for 



TRAVELS m GERMANY AND AMERICA 165 

development in a variety of ways. It was long before 
European colleges would admit the modern languages, 
and the later sciences, such as geology and palaeontology, 
into their academic curriculum; whereas those branches 
were admitted at once into the American colleges. 



CHAPTER XI 

PHILOSOPHY AND TEACHING 

T^HE indefatigable assiduity of Dr. McCosli's daily life 
as a teacher, philanthropist, preacher, and public 
agitator, was simply the reflection of an intellectual 
activity so restless that sluggish minds can scarcely 
grasp it. Or rather, it was the complement of a rest- 
less thinking, both constructive and critical, which soon 
found expression in a third important work. In 1860 
appeared "The Intuitions of the Mind, Inductively Con- 
sidered," a volume of marked originality and vigor, 
which contains the author's systematic philosophy as 
he had finally developed it. The great truths of which 
he was for nearly thirty years to be the champion are 
all clearly stated in it. With natural affiliations to Eeid 
and the Scottish school, he had been a pupil of Hamilton 
and a diligent student of Kant. Hegel he never under- 
stood, and the Idealists he underestimated. From Ham- 
ilton he accepted the philosophy of consciousness and 
the chief elements of his psychology, but, in opposition to 
the negative Hamiltonian metaphysic, he reasserted the 
positive principles of the Scottish school as represented 
by Eeid. He was vastly superior to Eeid in scholarship, 
his reasoning being more comprehensive and more con- 
vincing, the apprehension of his task clearer, and the 
mastery of his materials more complete. What he took 



lit bust by Bailey, presented in i88^ to 
Princeton College by the Class of i8j^ 



"'T? to be fche *^)i«TnT>5on are 



OiO. 

^■-ici boen a pui'ii ol iiauiilton 

mt. Hegel he never under- 

o'^ere'^tiraated. From Ham- 

t consciousness and 

tiio Ci: its ui iiis payoholugy, but, in opposition to 

the Hi ..v,;Tr,oM.:v, rnetaphysic, he reasserted the 

positiT '"'ttish school as represented 

(I in scholarship, 
ills I'u Hi more re I H 

vincing, .... ..^.; . . . : ■.,.,.. cr. f\»^d the 



PHILOSOPHY AND TEACHING 167 

from Eeid he appropriated more completely than Eeid 
himself had done. Mansel recognized the " high merit " 
of the "Intuitions" immediately. John Cairns of Ber- 
wick thought it " original in not a few things," especially 
in the discussion of the relation between knowledge and 
faith, and in its "unwinding of recent Kantian threads 
off the old spindle of Scottish realistic philosophy." 
Trendelenburg in Berlin, received it, strangely enough, as 
the work of a kindred spirit, and the Duke of Argyll 
called it a "strong book," strong especially in its de- 
fence of intuitional beliefs, much needed in days when 
"Manselian paradoxes passed current for very profound 
logic and metaphysics." 

Dr. McCosh's training and experience had confirmed 
his conviction that the human mind had not been left 
to wander darkly, but that in its constitution were cer- 
tain fundamental principles which, though not directly 
known, were a sufficient guide to truth both in cognition 
and in judgment. These ultimate principles cannot be 
reduced to lower terms, and it was the aim of the " In- 
tuitions," for thus they were designated, to discover 
and formulate them. On primitive cognitions, as of 
body and mind ; primitive beliefs, as of time, space, 
and the infinite; primitive judgments, which comprise 
the relations of identity and difference, whole and part, 
resemblance, active property, cause and effect, — on this 
foundation rest all the common truths of sound philoso- 
phy and vital religion. They are, in fact, generalizations 
of individual experience, but are not derived from it; 
although their final, special tests are not empirical alone, 
being, namely, self-evidence, catholicity, and necessity, 
yet nevertheless one test of their reliability is experience, 



168 JAMES MCCOSH 

and the system whicli expounded them was thirsty for 
the results of investigation. A philosophy thus com- 
prising the sciences not alone of being, but likewise of 
knowing, must be hospitable to new ideas. Professor 
Ormond, who knew and understood his great teacher 
better than any other, has said of him: "A devout 
Theist, he yet welcomed evolution, in which he saw 
an unfolding of the divine plan; an ardent intuitionist, 
he planted himself solidly upon experience, believing 
that when the voice of experience is adequately inter- 
preted it will supply the best testimony to the intuitional 
springs out of which it emerges; an unflinching foe of 
materialism in all its forms, he was yet one of the 
pioneers in America in recognizing the dependence of 
mind on body, and in welcoming the new science of 
physiological psychology, having an abiding faith that 
the most searching investigation in this field would only 
render more clear the impossibility of reducing mind to 
any materialistic formula." Dr. McCosh's final stand, 
expounded in 1860, and defended to the end, was made 
on the doctrine of the immediate knowledge of reality. 
This he debated incessantly, and with antagonists from all 
schools, — Hamilton, Mill, Mansel, Spencer, and Mahaffy. 
It was impossible, he felt, to accept the relativity of knowl- 
edge, and construct a sound philosophy of life, to accept 
evolutionary empiricism on the one hand, or idealism in 
any form on the other, and avoid drifting into agnosticism. 
Dr. McCosh was original in the use he made of the 
intuitions ; he was original in his enforcement of realism 
as both the alpha and the omega, the source and the end, 
of speculation ; he was original in the place he made for 
experimental psychology ; he was original among his 



PHILOSOPHY AND TEACHING 169 

contemporaries in his view that philosophy and religion 
are not merely ancillary the first to the second, but that 
they are chapters of the same book ; he was original in 
the treatment of evolution, which enabled him to wrest 
it from the hands of atheism and irreligion. There is 
nothing new under the sun, the idea is his who uses it 
best, originality is the combination of known elements 
into new compounds for present use. In this sense Dr. 
McCosh was a truly original thinker. 

Dr. McCosh's reputation as a constructive thinker will 
always rest on the " Intuitions," and it may well do so. 
The book is throughout well considered, well constructed, 
and well written. The style is almost a model of what a 
philosophic style should be, — lucid, adequate, and reada- 
ble. Throughout there is a marked independence and 
vigorous personality behind what is stated, and this gives 
a certain fascination to the argument which is almost 
irresistible. The reader has not the slightest sense of com- 
plexity or intricacy in the steady flow of the discussion. 
So taking is the language and treatment that, in the first 
perusal, uncommon usages of terms and a bold disregard 
of time-worn distinctions passes unnoticed. This may be 
well illustrated in the use of the word induction for the 
process of extricating the self-evident universal out of the 
self-evident singular, the derivation of general truths or 
intuitions from the individual mind, — a process not in the 
least related to that indicated by the same word when ap- 
plied either to physical science or the experimental investi- 
gation of the mind. There is also a certain surplusage of 
subdivision, which detracts from the unity of the discus- 
sion. These faults were pointed out when the book 
appeared, and they are all that can be pointed out. The 



170 JAMES MCCOSH 

treatment of a profound and difficult subject is not vitiated 
hj them in the slightest degree. 

But it has not generally been considered that the 
" Intuitions " was its author's greatest work, the palm of 
merit being awarded by those who knew him most sym- 
pathetically to the volume entitled: "An Examination 
of Mr. J. S. Mill's Philosophy, being a Defence of Funda- 
mental Truth," which appeared in 1866. The title exactly 
designates the contents, which are searching criticisms 
of Mill's entire philosophy. The circumstances which 
gave rise to this controversial book were these. Hamil- 
ton died in 1856, leaving the most of his mature think- 
ing in fragmentary notes uncollected and unpublished, or 
else in the form of lectures. In 1858 his lectures on 
metaphysics were published, as a posthumous work, and 
in the Bampton lectures for the same year " On the Limits 
of Eeligious Thought " Mansel applied the metaphysical 
agnosticism set forth in Hamilton's system to Christian 
dogmatics. Dr. Charles Hodge, and other theologians of 
less note, attacked the doctrine thus expounded, and there 
was wide-spread uneasiness in Great Britain and Ireland 
as to the influence of both Hamilton and Mansel, not 
merely among the Protestants, but among the Eoman 
Catholics as well. Finally, in 1865, Mill published his 
" Examination of Sir W. Hamilton's philosophy," attack- 
ing it in every point except the condemnation of German 
transcendentalism, which Mill approved. Early in the 
following year Mansel published two articles in the 
"Contemporary Review," defending Hamilton, touching 
upon the philosophy of the conditioned, on the relativity 
of knowledge, on causation, and on the doctrine of imme- 
diate perception. Mansel, like Hamilton, had drawn 



PHILOSOPHY AND TEACHING 171 

chiefly from Aristotle, from Kant, and from Eeid. The 
reality of knowledge was the gist of the whole discussion, 
since Eeid's was essentially a philosophy of perception. 
Mill had planted himself on the assertion that sensa- 
tion is the antecedent condition of matter, just as feeling 
is the antecedent condition of mind, thus reducing both 
to a sensational origin. The late Dr. Henry B. Smith, 
of Union Seminary, Dr. Ward, an Irish Eoman Catho- 
lic, Professor Masson, of Edinburgh, and Dr. McCosh, 
all took up their pens to enter the lists of debate with 
Mill. The latter was the most forcible, as he was the 
most elaborate in his treatment of Mill's fallacies. Car- 
penter, the eminent London physiologist, wrote at once 
that he was in sympathy with McCosh's views as to the 
existence of original mental properties, or tendencies to 
thoughts in certain directions, whether called Intuitions or 
anything else ; Mansel, though vexed at what he thought 
was an avoidable divergence in application between 
McCosh's philosophy and his own, gave the volume high 
praise; and the Duke of Argyll thought it "clear, cogent, 
and true." President Patton has admirably characterized 
the book as displaying the author at his best ; " his sub- 
tlety, his grip upon the point in question, his power of 
statement, his wit, and his clear, straight-forward style, — 
all these with the manner of one who is not giving an 
exhibition of sword-play, but of one who fights for life, 
and with a foeman worthy of his steel, are apparent in the 
'Defence of Fundamental Truth,' I cannot but believe, as 
in nothing else that ever came from Dr. McCosh's pen." 
The book was also attractive because of its fairness. 
While defending his system as a whole, it denounced 
Hamilton's views as to the relativity of knowledge, and 



172 JAMES MCCOSH 

criticised his theory of causation. As to the question 
of immediate knowledge, it was unflinching, and unspar- 
ingly condemned Mill for conceiving that from sensation 
we could get ideas of relation. 

It agrees partially with Mill in his theory of ohjective 
causation, that is, causation in nature ; but it differs en- 
tirely on the question of the causal judgment, McCosh 
regarding this as an intuition. Mill deriving it wholly 
from experience. 

In addition to the substantial books already mentioned, 
Dr. McCosh published a fourth during the years of his 
Belfast professorship ; namely, " The Supernatural in 
Eelation to the Natural," which appeared in 1862. 
Though not so widely read as the others, it contained 
matter of importance concerning the relations of phil- 
osophy and religion, passing through two editions. The 
enormous influence of Dr. McCosh may be seen in the 
circulation of his works, — " The Method of the Divine 
Government " has run through eight editions ; " The 
Typical Forms and Special Ends in Creation " through 
seven ; " The Intuitions of the Mind " through five, and 
the " Defence of Fundamental Truth " through six. This 
is a very remarkable record of production, especially if 
we add to it the two volumes of collected " Philosophical 
Papers," published in 1868, which contain "An Examina- 
tion of Sir William Hamilton's Logic, a Eeply to Mr. 
Mill's Third Edition, and The Present State of Moral Phi- 
losophy in Britain." But a consideration of the output, 
amazing as it is, will give no just idea of the extent to 
which Dr. McCosh's writings were read. At a time 
when the associational psychology of the Mills and Bain, 
and the agnosticism of Spencer were capturing the 



PHILOSOPHY AND TEACHING 173 

minds of thinkers in about equal measure, the clergy of 
the evangelical churches and the thinking laymen of 
evangelical faith greatly needed leaders of unclouded 
intellect and spiritual force. One of these they found in 
Dr. McCosh. His books were part of the apparatus to be 
found in every divinity school, and on the shelves of 
many working ministers. They were literally read 
around the world, for they had a great circulation in 
India, and the important ones were translated into 
Chinese by ^the missionaries. Certainly, as far as the 
Presbyterian family of churches was concerned, he was 
the foremost man in the field of religious and secular 
philosophy ; but his catholic and liberal spirit made him 
prominent in the thought of other Protestant churches 
as well. 

Among the last things Dr. McCosh wrote, in extreme 
old age, was a short confession of his faith, — first, that 
by the senses external and internal we discover and 
know real objects immediately, and not by any inter- 
mediate process ; second, that by the induction of facts 
we rise to the knowledge of the laws of nature and 
of mind, of the more obvious ones, such as the length 
of the day and year, or the more recondite ones, such as 
gravitation and chemical properties; that this realistic 
view, as the true one, is the one most favorable to religion, 
which proceeds on facts, and not phenomena, in the 
sense of appearances. Dr. McCosh was unwilling to be 
ranked as an Augustinian, or as a Calvinist. This was 
due to an unwillingness to call any mere man his 
master, and a sense that with the capacity for religious 
thought he had the responsibility for his own opinions. 
Augustine he admired as a profound thinker, ranking 



174 JAMES MCCOSH 

him with Plato and Aristotle ; but " his superstitions so 
weighed him down that they degraded the grandeur of 
Christianity, and rendered him obsolete." Calvin he esti- 
mated as less original but more judicial. " He might be the 
Lord Chancellor of the nations," were the words used. " He 
is one of the most judicious expounders of Scripture that 
ever lived. He should be consulted whenever there is a 
difficult passage to be interpreted. He is not afraid to 
make admissions which the timid fear to make. He sees 
no inconsistencies in passages of Scripture which some 
regard as contradictory, believing that there may be 
some means of reconciling them. His interpretations are 
commonly characterized by clearness and good sense, 
'par excellence; but sometimes, perhaps, he pursues his 
logic too far, drawing consequences which may not 
follow, if we saw the whole deep and complicated case 
as it is known to God. It is admitted that he was often 
harsh in his temper and in his expressions, and drove 
away men from Christ when he should ha,ve drawn them 
towards him. There are many sensitive minds which 
should be brought to a loving Saviour rather than to Cal- 
vin, though it might be advantageous to bring that same 
mind in connection with the grand Genevan reformer." 

One who could write and talk thus at the hearth-stone 
of Calvinism must be admitted to have had the courage 
of his convictions, and the fearlessness of a born 
leader. This quality was displayed in his persistent 
assertion that a realistic philosophy was the only basis 
for true religion, which in his view proceeds on facts, 
and not on phenomena, in the sense of appearances. 
Quoting Eomans i. 20 : " For the invisible things of God 
from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being 



PHILOSOPHY AND TEACHING 175 

understood by the things that are made, even his eternal 
power and godhead," he declared, with the fine certainty 
of a prophet, that both " the invisible things of God " and 
the " things that are made " are facts, and not mere phe- 
nomena. Passages like "Eejoice with them that do rejoice, 
and weep with them that weep," carry with them our 
conviction and our confidence, because they refer to facts, 
and not to vague appearances. On the last occasion 
when he addressed the Princeton students, and while 
reading from the pulpit to a vast audience of young 
men the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians, he 
uttered with great impressiveness the ninth verse, " For 
we know in part and we prophesy in part," then pausing 
he thundered forth, " Yes, gentlemen, but we know." His 
explanation of German theological aberration was that 
the German thinkers had all been led by Kant to regard 
what we discern as phenomena, and that in consequence 
they had by analogy come to regard what is revealed in 
Scripture as phenomena also, that is, as appearances. 
" The view which they take is in consequence flexible 
and insecure, first in their philosophy, and then in their 
theology as swayed by their philosophy. These views, 
fermenting in Germany, come over into Great Britain 
and America, and trouble our theology and our students." 
The further volumes of prime importance which came 
from Dr. McCosh's pen were his "Logic," published in 
1870, "Christianity and Positivism," published in 1871, 
"The Scottish Philosophy," 1874, "The Development 
Hypothesis," 1876, " The Emotions" and the complemen- 
tary volumes of his Psychology, appearing at intervals 
between 1880 and 1887, "The Conflicts of the Age," 
1881, "The Pliilosophical Series," published in parts 



176 JAMES MCCOSH 

from 1882 to 1885, and reprinted in 1887, "The Eeligi- 
ous Aspect of Evolution," 1887, " Gospel Sermons," 1888, 
and lastly "First and Fundamental Truths, Being a 
Treatise on Metaphysics," 1889. His other pamphlets 
and papers are too numerous to be mentioned except in 
an extended bibliography. It is no easy task to charac- 
terize this voluminous literary and philosophical pro- 
duction. In the first place, everything the author 
wrote during his long life was timely. It was a keen 
vision with which he scrutinized the world of facts and 
ideas, marking every tendency, and estimating its force 
with sound judgment. Wherever a word in season 
could be spoken, wherever experience or theory, as he 
knew life, could be made to tell, whether in book, 
pamphlet, or in the secular and religious press, there 
Dr. McCosh was sure to be found with suggestion or 
admonition. Touching the thought of his time at its 
salient points and with tremendous vitality, he con- 
stantly insisted on the few central truths of his system 
in their application to each new question as it arose. 
Incisive, mtense, and real, or rather concrete in his 
thinking, he felt a loyalty to truth which he sought to 
instil with all his might into the minds of others. 
Every one who aspires to be a leader of thought must be 
judged in two ways, — as to the influence he exerted on 
his contemporaries, and as to the lasting effect of his 
work among his successors. We are too close to Dr. 
McCosh for any final judgment as to the perspective in 
which he will be seen ; but perhaps we may get a 
glimpse of what it is to be when we recall that Edin- 
burgh, after a cycle of antipodal currents swirling around 
Hegel and Spencer respectively, has in her most important 



PHILOSOPHY AND TEACHING 177 

philosophical chair a distinguished professor, Seth, who is 
appreciative of the old Scottish philosophy, and that Apri- 
orism has secured its innings among English philosophers 
with its defence by Green in his introduction to Hume. 

But the men of learning who controlled the middle 
years of the nineteenth century have frankly recorded 
their views of McCosh's power. Dorner, the great Berlin 
theologian, reviewed " The Scottish Philosophy," in glow- 
ing terms, and Zeller, the equally great Berlin phil- 
osopher, said that nowhere else could be found an 
account of "a not unimportant branch of the newer 
philosophy in such extension, and with so careful an 
elaboration of all details. The clear and able exposition 
of the author made on me," he continues, '•' the impression 
of great reliability even where I could not judge of his 
sources from personal knowledge." Throughout the 
English-speaking world it was received with equal 
warmth. Ulrici said of the " Logic " that it was the 
best text-book on the subject in the English language ; 
Francis Bowen, of Harvard, said that it had " a distinc- 
tive and independent character." The successive volumes 
of the " Psychology " were hailed in many quarters with 
such delight as perplexed men display on the appear- 
ance of a trusted guide. The " Indian Witness " hoped 
the system would be " introduced into every G-overnment, 
missionary, and private college in the land," a wish which 
was in large measure gratified. An Italian reviewer of 
the first importance, Professor Ferri I believe, declared 
that no other philosopher had so completely examined 
the emotions, and that the portion devoted to aesthetics 
was the most complete and broad ever written on the 
subject. Kibot's Bevue Philosophique signalized the chap- 

12 



178 JAMES MCCOSH 

ter on the association of the Emotions and Speech as 
particularly instructive. Professor Lassen, President of 
the Philosophical Society of Berlin, thought the " Psychol- 
ogy " especially interesting, as seeking to construct a 
positive mental science without the errors of the positiv- 
istic school. Concerning the " Metaphysics," Dorner 
wrote in the "Yearbook of German Theology," that he 
admired the moderation as well as the comprehensive- 
ness of the author's views, which, though exhibiting due 
respect for the masters of Scottish philosophy, had not 
restrained the writer's independent judgment, or kept 
him stationary. It is needless and would be wearisome to 
repeat any more of the numerous similar testimonials 
to Dr. McCosh's influence on contemporary thought, and 
to the deferential respect paid to him by the ablest of his 
fellow-workers. A reviewer of the " London Quarterly " 
clearly stated the whole matter in reviewing the " Meta- 
physics." " ISTo philosopher before Dr. McCosh," he 
wrote, " has brought out the stages by which an original 
and individual intuition passes, first into an articulate 
but still individual judgment, and then into a universal 
maxim or principle ; and no one has so clearly or com- 
pletely classified and enumerated our intuitive conclu- 
sions, or exhibited in detail their relation to the various 
sciences which repose upon them as their foundation. 
The amount of summarized information which it con- 
tains is very great ; and it is the only work on the very 
important subject with which it deals. Never was such 
a work so much needed as in the present day. It is the 
only scientific work adapted to counteract the school of 
Mill, Bain, and Herbert Spencer, which is so steadily 
prevailing among the students of the present generation." 



PHILOSOPHY AND TEACHING 179 

The strongest testimony to Dr. McCosli's pre-eminent 
ability as a teacher of philosophy has already been given 
in another connection ; but a few words must be added 
here to enforce the connection between his personality 
and his instruction. His presence was impressive and 
stimulating to such a degree that, in a sense, what he 
was and what he believed were a challenge to all comers. 
There could be as little indifference in hearing him as in 
reading his books. He was both tall and massive. His 
head was large and symmetrical, his features clear cut, 
and his expression intense. When to the impression 
created by observation was added the knowledge of his 
extended reputation, his pupils felt a certain sense of 
awe. But no sooner did he begin to speak than his 
humor began to play, and his marked mannerisms to 
be displayed. Eeasoning by bounds, his extempore talks 
were often so elliptical as to be nearly incoherent to the 
mediocre mind, but the carefully prepared lectures which 
he read to his classes were concise, consecutive, and con- 
vincing. Carried away by his subject, he left sufficient 
room for the mischief of the inattentive or indolent 
among his hearers to display itself, but when recalled 
to mundane things by its excess, his ebullitions of scorn 
were terrible, and quickly restored the equilibrium of the 
class-room. His nervous temperament was highly organ- 
ized, the activity being indicated physically by gestures, 
or by involuntary motions, like rubbing his hands, or 
smoothing his brow, which were constantly repeated, 
and became a source of amused interest to the other- 
wise indifferent. In his speech there was sometimes 
hesitancy, sometimes a torrential flow, but always the 
indication of powerful accompanying brain-work. The 



180 JAMES MCCOSH 

combination of natural beauty and grace with the evi- 
dent subjugation of his body by stalwart, rugged think- 
ing, produced what at first seemed jerkiness, but was 
soon felt to be an absorbing interplay of mind and body. 
Such a personality was almost unique, and his students 
soon came under its spell. Subordinating the text-book 
to the position of an aid to memory. Dr. McCosh enforced 
the spoken word of his lectures into a powerful stimulus, 
and used his discussions as a spur to original thought in 
his hearers. He thus created an enthusiasm which made 
those who felt it designate him as a man of Socratic mould. 
Even in that most difficult of all teaching functions, the 
oral instruction of large classes. Dr. McCosh was able to 
keep every mind in the room under the spell of his own 
movement. There were many amusing contretemps on 
such occasions, and occasionally some turbulence, with a 
corresponding display of righteous indignation from the 
chair. But there never was languor, and never the feel- 
ing that the class, like a skittish steed, had even momen- 
tarily escaped from control. The born teacher, like the 
ship-master in a gale, simply exerted himself as the occa- 
sion demanded, and all was well. In this connection, it 
should be noticed that Dr. McCosh was one of the first 
to introduce into the United States, under the name of 
"Library Meetings," what is now known by the G-erman 
designation of Seminar. In the hospitality of his own 
study his best pupils assembled at regular intervals to 
hear living problems stated by graduates of special power, 
or by strangers invited for the purpose, and then to par- 
ticipate in a long, lively discussion, of which the host was 
the instigator and the moderator. 



CHAPTER XII 

AUTOBIOGKAPHICAL. — TWENTY TEARS OF 
PEINCETON 

1868-1888 

■r\E. M^^COSH'S most distinguished services to philoso- 
phy, in the broad sense, were not destined to be 
either as a constructive thinker or as a teacher of meta- 
physics, but as an educator. During the extended tour he 
made through America in 1866, he had been much feted, 
and had made many influential acquaintances in all 
parts of the United States. Although it was ostensibly 
a holiday journey, yet he was ever revolving many im- 
portant schemes in his mind, and among these was a 
plan for the alliance of Presbyterian churches through- 
out the world, concerning which he spoke and conversed 
much with the leading men of all the various Presby- 
terian denominations. Moreover, he was then at the 
height of his power as a preacher, and he was gladly 
heard by numerous congregations at the leading centres 
of influence. Though preaching had not been ostensibly 
his profession for ten years past, yet he might justly be 
reckoned as a great preacher. As a religious philosopher, 
as a hard-working Christian philanthropist, as the master 
of a strong and lucid style, he could not fail to write 
sermons of great power. But he could do more, far 
more: reading with close attention to his manuscript. 



182 JAiyiES MCCOSH 

he yet was always vivacious and frequently dramatic; 
his eye flashed, his hands moved, his figure swayed with 
that natural adaptation of delivery and gesture to the 
theme which characterizes true oratory. Besides, he was 
a born pamphleteer, quick to seize the points of interest in 
any discussion, able to present them with picturesqueness 
and ample illustration, and sure to conclude his remarks 
with a penetrating home-thrust, which said in plain Eng- 
lish just what he desired to have remembered. These 
powers were complemented by a rare social gift, not the 
smoothness of pleasant speech, nor the elegance of pol- 
ished manners, nor the deference of courtly self-restraint, 
but the gift of perfect naturalness, of keen appreciation, of 
forcible statement and quick retort, of wit both con- 
scious and unconscious ; — in short, of a most uncommon 
individuality which interested and attracted men and 
women of sound sense, — the good breeding which makes 
every one feel his or her own worth. Such were the 
qualities which made him so widely known and appre- 
ciated in the United States, and gained for him many 
choice and influential friends. One of these was the 
late Dr. Samuel Irenaeus Prime, for many years the 
editor of the "New York Observer," a man who was 
in some respects a kindred spirit. 

In 1868 the president of Princeton College resigned. 
One of the three or four most ancient and distinguished of 
American universities, that institution, famous in colonial 
and revolutionary days for the learning of her professors, 
and for the extended influence in public life of her sons, 
had for a time been sadly crippled, partly by poverty, 
and partly by the absence of enthusiasm among her 
graduates as a whole. Founded in the most catholic 



TWENTY YEARS OF PRINCETON 183 

spirit as a protest against the Old Light conservatism of 
certain leading men in New England, Princeton had had 
among her governors men of many evangelical denomina- 
tions, and among her children citizens of every school 
in Church and state. In the main, her endowments had 
come from Presbyterian sources, her presidents had been 
Presbyterian clergymen, and her affiliations had been 
with the various Presbyterian churches. At the same 
time, her charter was absolutely unsectarian, and she had 
never come under the control of any ecclesiastical court. 
At a time when sectarian bitterness was at its height, 
this fact was a source of weakness, but in a moment when 
interest in the higher education for its own sake was 
reviving throughout the country, such liberty might be 
made under the leadership of a firm but catholic-spirited 
man a source of great strength. Dr. Prime had suggested 
the name of Dr. McCosh to some of Princeton's earnest 
and intelligent trustees as that of a man commanding 
great respect throughout the country as a defender of the 
faith, but entangled by no local party allegiance. After 
careful deliberation, and the free expression of widely diver- 
gent opinions the governors of Princeton College elected 
McCosh to be its president. It was a curious coincidence 
that just a century earlier another Lowland Scot had, 
for similar reasons in a similar crisis, been chosen to the 
same office. John Witherspoon, by descent a Covenanter, 
in position a leader against Moderatism, by instinct a 
statesman, had, in 1768, been called to Princeton from 
Edinburgh, and in the unfolding of events had become an 
ardent American, the trainer of a generation of public 
men, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and a 
champion of liberty in Church and state. There were to 



184 JAMES MCCOSH 

be many striking parallelisms in tlie American careers of 
the two great Scotchmen. Dr. McCosh received the news 
of his election in May, 1868, and after due deliberation 
accepted the appointment in these words : " I devote my- 
self and my remaining life under God to old Princeton 
and the religious and literary interests with which it is 
identified, and, I fancy, will leave my bones in your grave- 
yard beside the great and good men who are buried there, 
hoping that my spirit may mount to communion with 
them in heaven." After spending the summer with his 
father-in-law. Dr. Guthrie, on his farm at the base of 
the Grampian Hills in Scotland, carefully recalling 
the American College system as he had studied it in 
1866, and devising plans for his great work, he bade 
tender adieus to friends in both Ireland and Scotland, 
and reached Princeton in the autumn of the same 
year. 

It was with many pangs that Dr. McCosh severed his 
connection with old friends and old duties. He had 
passed his fifty-seventh birthday, having reached an age 
when many begin to see the limits of their powers. But, 
exceptional in his energy and enterprise, he was still 
vigorous in health and young in feeling, eager for wider 
fields of influence than any which had so far opened to 
him ; blessed with a wife whose views of life and duty 
were as large as his own, — a true helpmeet, who, with 
the indomitable energy of her race, and the refinement of 
her gentle blood, was fitted to further their common 
interests by her tact and her power, — he was doubly 
strong for any undertaking, however enormous. Neither 
the Irish nor the Scotch could feel that Dr. McCosh was 
going to a strange country. He had early discerned the 



TWENTY YEAES OF PRINCETON 185 

unity of tlie two great English-speaking peoples, and had 
enforced that important fact upon the older one so that 
all who knew him were clear as to his position. Accord- 
ingly he was, after warm expostulation, suffered to leave 
with every manifestation of respect and affection. In 
Belfast there was a public banquet, with the most com- 
plimentary speeches, and a presentation of handsome plate, 
the presiding officer being Lord Dufferin. In Brechin 
there was an equally splendid demonstration at a public 
breakfast, with Earl Dalhousie in the chair. The temper 
and feeling of those who thus bade their tried and honored 
friend a hearty good-by is well summarized in the fol- 
lowmg letter from Lord Shaftesbury, written on the eve 
of Dr. McCosh's departure. 

London, September 27, 1868. 

Dear Dr. McCosh : You are, I hear, about to leave us, 
and commence a new career at Princeton in the United 
States. We ought, perhaps, to rejoice that so worthy and 
efficient a man is going to be the principal of a transatlantic 
college ; and so to impart to our American brethren a por- 
tion of the advantages we have so long enjoyed ourselves. 
Nevertheless, we are selfish enough to regret a little what 
we shall so soon lose ; and we may boldly and truly clothe 
our sentiments with the name of Patriotism. But is 
there not as much room for the spirit of British patriot- 
ism in the country of your adoption as in the country 
you will have left ? Can there not, by God's blessing, be 
much done to smooth differences, round angular points, 
and harmonize the sentiments of the two nations, the 
one towards the other ? 

That declamatory sentence which we so often hear " A 



186 JAMES MCCOSH 

common freedom, a common language, a common reli- 
gion," should become between us a practical reality, and 
keep in uninterrupted peace, the mother and daughter, 
who, did they break out into open war, would be guilty of 
the biggest wickedness, and the biggest folly, ever yet 
exhibited among the families of mankind. But such a 
friendship, to be cordial and lasting, must rest on the 
communion of the great principles and doctrines laid 
down at the Eeformation, not in any spirit of aggression, 
but on a grand basis of mutual assistance and defence. 
Popery is not our only enemy ; rationalism is as hostile 
as the Church of Eome to the cardinal points, the "plen- 
ary inspiration of the Scriptures," and the "supremacy 
of the Word of God as the sole guide and rule of life." 
Now, although on these matters the dangers of America 
may not be so imminent, at the present time, as our own, 
she will have them, before long, in the richest abundance 
and variety. 

All deep and sustained earnestness in religion (as dis- 
tinguished from the feeling and action in support of 
establishments, political and ecclesiastical) seems to be 
fast declining. The determination of Saint Paul to know 
" nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified," will soon 
be accepted or understood by a few only either here or else- 
where ; and yet between the religious people of America, 
and the religious people of England, there cannot be, 
except in this principle, any firm bond of union. The 
feeling it inspires, and the habit of thought it both 
creates and maintains (I speak not here of eternal things), 
are the sole guarantees for the harmony of nations, and 
for perfect freedom, collectively and individually, under 
either a monarchy, or a republic. 



TWENTY YEARS OF PRINCETON 187 

With earnest wishes and prayers for your success, 
believe me, 

Very truly yours, 

Shaftesbury. 

P. S. Every one must contemplate with pecuHar in- 
terest the proposed gathering, at New York, of delegates 
from all the Protestant nations to take counsel together 
on religious matters. Here would be a noble opportunity 
to propound, and perhaps to carry out, the great plan you 
have in view. 

Dr. Charles Hodge declared, in his address at the cer- 
emonies attending Dr. McCosh's inauguration, that never 
in the history of the college had an academic election 
been received with such a universal expression of ap- 
probation. This was literally true, and the welcome 
which the new president received when, on October 27, 
he took his seat, swearing loyalty to the constitution of 
the United States, and that of the State of New Jersey, 
was a fitting compliment to the farewells so tenderly 
spoken across the sea. The trustees, the alumni, the 
students, the friends of the college, felt that a new epoch 
in the history of Princeton had been opened ; the press 
throughout the country considered the occasion as one of 
high importance ; and the few careful students of American 
education realized that a new factor had been added to 
the problem, not a complicating factor, but a helpful 
systematizer. The president's inaugural address was a 
pronunciamento. With high appreciation of the American 
colleges, it analyzed the educational systems of Great Bri- 
tain and America, deducing by comparison and exclusion a 
very definite forecast of what was the course to be taken 



188 JAJklES MCCOSH 

in the latter. Of Princeton, he used the word University 
by the figure of speech known as anticipation, but this 
he did of intention ; announcing the relative values in a 
university scheme of the classics, mathematics, mental 
and moral science, political economy, literature, aesthetics, 
modern languages, and, what was then a high novelty, 
physical training. He likewise discussed modes of teach- 
ing, the uses of fellowships, standards of scholarship, and 
the superlative importance of professorial teaching as op- 
posed to the tutorial system. Yet this was done without 
any sense on the part of his hearers that a stranger was 
assuming to dictate ; the feeling was as if a powerful com- 
patriot, or even fellow-scholar, had put his shoulder to a 
wheel just turning out of the old ruts. This instinctive 
perception was prescient, for within less than a quarter 
of a century some of the American colleges have been 
transformed in scope and spirit, and in that transforma- 
tion Princeton has moved as one of the controlling forces. 
The higher education was at the ebb-tide of its for- 
tunes during the sixties, throughout the whole United 
States. Tills was in no sense due to the lack of great 
scholars and able teachers, as a glance through the 
catalogues of those years will conclusively prove ; it 
was owing to an inadequate, crystallized system, and 
the neglect of educational interests incident to the great 
struggle for nationality. Young men of intellectual 
aspirations were turning their eyes toward Europe for 
the stimulus and opportunity they so eagerly desired. 
Since both England and France were slightly disdain- 
ful of American learning, and their universities, in 
consequence, were not entirely hospitable to American 
students, the eager youth of the United States were 



TWENTY YEARS OF PRINCETON 189 

thronging the halls of the German universities, which 
were not merely hospitable but pressing in their invi- 
tation, opening their doors wide, making easy the en- 
trance to all their stores of science and learning, and 
holding their academic prizes at the disposal of all 
comers who could prove their fitness to receive them. 
This movement had created much alarm among those 
who desired that American institutions should be the 
peers of any, and who saw the possible dangers in 
foreign influence upon a class of students who had 
great powers of acquisition but a slender gift of dis- 
crimination, — a considerable body of able men, who, for 
a normal development, require not merely the spur of 
intellectual competition, but the wholesome restraints 
of home standards as to conduct, in order to reach 
their highest usefulness as scholar-citizens. Four years 
previously, Columbia had called Barnard to lay the 
foundations of her regeneration; Harvard had chosen 
Eliot for the same purpose; Gilman was soon to be 
intrusted with the organization of the Johns Hopkins 
as a hearthstone of the highest specialization ; Yale 
was sowing the seeds of prosperity under Woolsey, and 
Princeton was now to enter the lists under McCosh. In 
situation, in social connection, in ecclesiastical affiliation, 
in patriotic tradition, the last-named college was very 
strong; but her resources were very slender, and, with 
a few notable exceptions, her devoted supporters were 
stronger morally than financially. There was no great 
commercial city to feel a local pride in her upbuilding, 
no close-knitted organization of graduates to stand jeal- 
ous guard over her interests. Located midway between 
New York and Philadelphia, she had enjoyed the favor 



190 JAMES MCCOSH 

of neither, and her graduates, except the large number 
resident in New Jersey, were scattered throughout the 
length and breadth of the Union, many of them disloyal, 
impoverished, and embittered, living secluded as best they 
might among the southern States so recently scourged by 
war. Besides, the college had been waging relentless 
warfare upon the Greek-letter fraternities in the interest 
of its ancient literary societies. Whig and Clio Halls. As 
a consequence, the friends of the former institutions were 
more or less hostile to Princeton, and many of its former 
students who had been disciplined for joining them were 
fierce in their enmity. Add to these considerations the 
fact that many evil practices, like hazing, dishonesty in 
examinations, or faculty espionage, were rife in Princeton, 
at least to the same extent as in other colleges, and we 
shall have some conception of the task before a foreigner, 
well on in middle life, who expected to evolve a new sys- 
tem, to win public confidence, to regenerate student man- 
ners, and to secure the endowments necessary for a work 
of such magnitude. How this difficult task was accom- 
plished was told by Dr. McCosh with honorable pride 
when he resigned the president's chair in 1888. His 
narrative is as follows: 

In speaking of the progress of the college, I do not 
claim any exclusive merit. The credit is due first to 
God's Providence, which has favored us, and under this 
to trustees, to faculty, to students, to munificent bene- 
factors, to innumerable friends, who have prayed for us 
and practically helped us, — they are so many that I am 
sorry to find that I have not space to name them all. 
All that I claim is that I have had the unspeakable 



TWENTY YEARS OF PRINCETON 191 

privilege of being in all the work, and in every part 
of it. 

I came at an opportune time. I owe any success I 
have had to this circumstance more than to any other. 
The war, so disastrous and yet so glorious, was over. 
Princeton College had suffered, — not, however, in honor, 
— but she had numerous friends, and nobly did they 
gather round her, and they said, as it were, to me, in 
language loud enough for me to hear, " Do you advance 
and we will support you." In those days I was like the 
hound in the leash ready to start, and they encouraged 
me with their shouts as I sprang forth into the hunt. 

When called to this place, I was a professor in the 
youngest of the universities set up by Great Britain ; 
I had helped somewhat to form it, and in doing so 
had to study the European systems of college education. 
But I announced: "I have no design, avowed or secret, 
to revolutionize your American colleges, or reconstruct 
them after a European model. I have seen enough of 
the American colleges to become convinced that they are 
not rashly to be meddled with. They are the spontane- 
ous growth of your position and intelligence; they are 
associated with your history, and have become adjusted 
to your wants, and whatever improvements they admit 
of must be built on the old foundation." 

I became heir at once to a rich inheritance handed 
down by a long line of presidential ancestors, in Dickin- 
son, Burr, Edwards, Davis, Finley, Witherspoon, Stan- 
hope Smith, Ashbel Green, Carnahan, and Maclean. It 
was my privilege to reap what others had sown ; I was 
awed, and yet encouraged, by the circumstance that I 
had to follow such intellectual giants as Edwards 



192 JAMES MCCOSH 

and Witherspoon. My immediate predecessor was John 
Maclean, "the well beloved," who watched over the 
young men so carefully, and never rebuked a student 
without making him a friend. But I did not allow 
myself to fall into the weakness of trying to do over 
again what my predecessors had done, and done so 
well. My aim has been to advance with the times, and 
to do a work in my day such as they did in theirs. My 
heart has all along been in my work, which I commenced 
immediately after my inauguration. 

I am now to give some account of that work under 
convenient heads. I may begin with the buildings, not 
because they are the most important, but because they 
strike the eye. Every alumnus of the college should 
come up once a year if he lives not far off, and once 
every three years if he resides at a distance, to pay 
his respects to his Alma Mater, who will be sure to 
give him a welcome. To all who have performed this 
filial duty, she has shown every year for the last twenty 
years a new building, a new fellowship, or a new pro- 
fessorship. 

Those present at my inauguration heard the shout, 
sufficient to rend the heavens, when I declared that 
every college should have a gymnasium for the body as 
well as for the mind. Mr. Eobert Bonner and Mr. Henry 
G. Marquand answered the challenge on the part of the 
students, and as our first benefactors engaged to raise a 
gymnasium, which was opened in January, 1870, and the 
most accomplished gymnast in America appointed as 
superintendent. 

I confess that I was disappointed, when I came here, 
with the state of the buildings. Some of the recitation- 



TWENTY YEAKS OF PRINCETON 193 

rooms, especially those in the building now called the 
college offices, were temptations to disorder, of which 
the students took advantage. At times they would take 
out the stove, and when the class met in the morning 
they cried " cold," " cold," and the professor had to dis- 
miss them ; some of the instructors, however, keeping 
them in the whole hour. I remember one night when 
they took out the furniture of a room, and made a bonfire 
of it. In these circumstances we saw the need of having 
new recitation-rooms of a higher order, and the stately 
structure of Dickinson Hall, commenced in 1869, ap- 
peared completed on the campus in 1870. There the 
chief lectures and recitations in the academic department 
have been held ever since, and there, from day to day, 
an intellectual gymnasium is kept up for the strengthen- 
ing of the mind. 

Meanwhile, our students increased, and Eeunion Hall, 
so called in honor of the reunion of the Old and IsTew 
School branches of the Presbyterian Church, was begun 
in 1870, and finished in 1871. The library and its con- 
tents were unworthy of the college, — the number of 
volumes was under 30,000, — and a new library building, 
I believe the most beautiful in the country, was finished 
in 1873, and the number of volumes is now towards 
70,000. 

All this time Mr. John C. Green was our greatest 
benefactor, and his brother, Chancellor Green, was 
always working with him. In 1873, Mr. J. C. Green 
started the School of Science, the most important addi- 
tion which has been made to the college in my day. 
Since his decease, in 1875, his wishes have been carried 
out most honorably and generously by his trustees ; the 

13 



194 JAMES MCCOSH 

sum contributed by his estate to the good of the college 
must be upward of a million and a half, periiaps two 
millions. Of them, we in Princeton may say, in the 
language applied to Sir Christopher Wren, ' Si monu- 
mentum requiris, circumspice." These were the days 
of our prosperity, which was powerfully promoted by 
the wise counsels and the constant energies of the Hon. 
John A. Stewart and Mr. Henry M. Alexander, without 
whom I never could have done what I have been 
enabled to do. 

In 1875 we were all touched by the gift of $15,000, 
left us by a very promising young man, Mr. Hamilton 
Murray, who perished at sea in the "Ville du Havre." 
That sum was devoted by his brother to the erection of 
the hall which bears his name, and which has become 
the College Oratory, in which prayer is wont to be 
made by the students, and of which it may be said : 
This man and that man was born there. 

In the same year our visiting alumni would see in 
old IsTorth College the beautiful E. M. Museum, con- 
structed by Mr. William Libbey, and arranged so taste- 
fully with geological specimens by Professor Guyot. To 
the same gentleman, Mr. Libbey, we owe University Hall, 
erected at an expense of nearly $200,000, first used as 
an hotel for the friends of the college, and now as a 
dormitory for our students. Our numbers were increas- 
ing, and in 1876 Witherspoon Hall was built, with its 
elegant rooms and grand prospect, where the students have 
not only every comfort, but every means of refining their 
tastes. At this point, 1878, I have to speak with grati- 
tude of the gift bestowed on the college and on me by 
my friend, the late Alexander Stuart, of the president's 



TWENTY YEARS OF PRINCETON 195 

house, with the lovely accompanying grounds, forming 
the finest residence occupied by the president of any 
college in the world, and where I have spent in comfort 
and elegance nine years of my life. 

In 1878-79 a telescope, provided by a few friends, was 
placed in the observatory, which had been built in 1868 
by General Halstead, and by it observations have been 
made wliich let us know something of the sun and 
planets. In the same year houses were built for Pro- 
fessor Young and Professor Brackett, and Edwards Hall 
was erected to give students rooms at a lower rate. 

In 1881-82 Mr. Henry G. Marquand erected the 
College Chapel, the most beautiful in America, and there 
the members of the college will worship on Sabbath and 
on week days for ages to come, and draw down blessings 
on the college and its students in all future time. And 
now you see that Biological Laboratory completed, the 
noble gift of the Class of 1877, where experiments will 
continually be made, by a number of our professors, to 
throw light on the mysteries of life. 

As the Marquand family had done so much for Art, — 
Mr. Frederick Marquand's trustees having given $60,000 
for the endowment of a chair, — I was determined that 
there should be an Art Museum for carrying out their 
intentions ; and, departing from my usual practice, I 
went round to receive subscriptions, and raised $42,000, 
given in the most generous manner by about a dozen 
contributors. That museum has been erected, and has 
received the fine collection of pottery and porcelain 
promised by Dr. W. C. Prime. 

I remember the first view which I got of the pleasant 
height on which the college stands, the highest ground 



196 JAMES MCCOSH 

between the two great cities of the Union, looking down 
on a rich country, covered with wheat and corn, with 
apples and peaches, resembling the south of England as 
much as one country can be like another. Now we see 
that height covered with buildings, not inferior to those 
of any other college in America. I have had great 
pleasure in my hours of relaxation in laying out — 
always assisted by the late Eev. W. Harris, the treasurer 
of the college — the grounds and walks, and locating the 
buildings. I have laid them out somewhat on the model 
of the demesnes of English noblemen. I have always 
been healthiest when so employed. I remember the 
days, sunshiny or cloudy, in April and November, on 
which I cut down dozens of deformed trees and shrubs, 
and planted large numbers of new ones which will live 
when I am dead. I do not believe that I will be allowed 
to come back from the other world to this ; but if this were 
permitted, I might be allured to visit these scenes so 
dear to me, and to see the tribes on a morning go up to 
the house of God in companies. 

I never looked on these buildings as constituting our 
chief work. I remember that some critics found fault 
with me for laying out too much money on stone and 
lime ; but I proceeded on system, and knew what I was 
doing. I viewed the edifices as means to an end, at 
best as outward expressions and symbols of an internal 
life. 

I said to myself and I said to others, " We have a fine 
old college here, with many friends ; why should we not 
make it equal to any college in America, and in the end 
to any in Europe ? " The friends of Princeton saw that 
I was in earnest, and nobly did they encourage me. I 



TWENTY YEARS OF PRINCETON 197 

shall never forget the substantial kindness I received at 
that time. I could not walk up Broadway without some 
one coming up to me and saying, " Do you not want so 
and so ? I will help you to get it." As he met me, Mr. 
John 0. Green took me into a corner, and told me that 
he meant to offer to erect a certain building, adding, " If 
I die before this is done, I have drawn out papers to 
secure its execution." 



CHAPTER XIII 

AUTOBIOGEAPHICAL. TWENTY YEAKS OF 

PEINCETON {Continued) 

T HAD to consider at the beginning what would be the 
course of study in the college. I resolved, on the one 
hand, to keep all that was good in the old studies which 
had trained our fathers ; but, on the other hand, I saw 
there were new branches entitled to be placed alongside 
the old. The problem with me was to make a judicious 
combination of the two. In the winter after I entered 
upon my duties a joint committee of the trustees and of 
the faculty held a number of meetings, which ended in 
our drawing out a scheme which, with important modifi- 
cations and improvements, has been continued to this 
day. The increase in the number of our students, and 
of the branches taught, will now require some new 
modifications, but I hope they will run in the same line. 

Hitherto all the students had been required to take 
the same course of study, being the good old solid one 
handed down from our fathers. But this was felt to be 
irksome by many who were weary of studying JNIathe- 
matics, Latin, and Greek all the four years of their 
course, while there were new and attractive branches of 
literature and science from which they were excluded. 
The principle on which we acted was that an endeavor 
should be made to introduce into the college every 
department of true scholarship and knowledge, taking 




From the Alto-Rilievo by St. Gaudens in the Marquand 
Chapel, presented in i88g by the Class of iSyg 



OF 



'int conv 
^eia a number oi luuouu;^.-, ^ m 

,..., ,,...:g out a scheme which, with n.^, ^in- 

ccitions and improvements, has been contii 
uay. The increase in the number of o and 

of the branches taught, will now rei^iuuo r,.>me, new 
modifications, hnt T L r? r: they will run in the same line. 

Hitherto all .s had been required to take 

the same cour; 13% being the good old solid one 

' ' '.fn froiii oTvr fathers. But this was felt to be 

r-iXYiv v.'lic> were wea.'Y C'f studying Mathe- 

years of their 
course lere were new and attractive branches of 

literato.!'. ana science from which they were excluded. 
The princip'f^ cin which we acted was that an endeavor 
should bt introduce into the coUeg 

department ui true scholarship and knowledge, casing 




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TWENTY YEARS OF PRIXCETON 199 

care to leave out all that was fictitious and pretentious. 
But, as we projected new branches, we discovered that 
they were so numerous that we could not impose them 
all without burdening the minds of the students on the 
one hand, or on the other making them " Jacks of all 
trades and masters of none." Every one sees that the 
day of universal scholars, such as Aristotle, Scaliger, and 
Leibnitz, has gone by, and can never return. Not only 
have the physical sciences been multiplying, but all 
departments of philology, of historical, social, and phil- 
osophic study. Hence the necessity of allowing elec- 
tiVes in the curriculum of study. 

We need to lay restraints on electives. Surely we are 
not to allow candidates for A.B. and A.M. to choose 
what studies they please. These two degrees have 
hitherto had a meaning, and it should be kept up, so that 
those who have gained it may be recognized as scholars. 
An indiscriminate choice holds out a temptation, which 
many are not able to resist, to take the easiest subjects, 
— say narrative history, — or those taught by easy-going 
or popular teachers, who may or may not exact syste- 
matic study. I hold that there are branches which are 
necessary to the full development of the mind, which 
every educated man ought to know. No one, I think, 
should be a graduate of a college who does not know 
mathematics and classics, the one to solidify the reasoning 
powers, and the other to refine the taste. 

On a memorable occasion I defended Greek as an obliga- 
tory study in our colleges.^ Greek and Latin have been, 

^ The debate on this subject between President Eliot and Dr. McCosh 
attracted widespread attention. It took place in New York, on Feb. 24, 
1885. Dr. McCosh's remarks were as follows : 

I was asked to come into a debate which was to be three-cornered. 



200 JAMES MCCOSII 

in fact, the main instrument in transmitting to us a 
knowledge of the ancient world. Greek is the most per- 

Presideut Porter of Yale, as well as President Eliot, was to have taken 
part in it. It has now become two-cornered, if such a term were per- 
missible, and I am called to criticise directly what is known as the new 
departure of Harvard. I am glad that the matter has been brought to a 
crisis. The movement has been long going on at Harvard in a silent 
way, and it is time that the public and parents should have an opportunity 
of knowing what is the system adopted in one of our foremost colleges. 
President Eliot has formulated the question in a manner that is large, 
loose, vague, showy, and plausible, but I think I shall be able to show the 
fallacies that underlie his reasonings. The sacred word " liberty " has been 
used as a catchword to lure students, and young men are made to believe 
that they will be permitted to choose those studies in which they can ob- 
tain the highest grades with the least labor. I am not antiquated, and 
although I am an old man, I am not old-fashioned. My aim all through 
my professional life has been to elevate learning, and I hope to see every 
new branch of true learning introduced into our colleges, but I cannot 
indorse the course which Harvard has pursued. I believe that men 
should have freedom in choosing their studies ; but the freedom has limits. 
Men are free to choose their colleges, and the departments which they 
will follow in these colleges,whether law or medicine or theology ; but there 
liberty should cease, and it should be understood that certain branches 
must be studied. To hold the contrary leads at once to a reductio ad 
absurdum. "What if a medical student should neglect physiology and 
anatomy and materia medica, for music and the drama and painting 1 It 
is evident, tlierefore, that there must be some restrictions. 

Now a college curriculum should have two elements or characteristics. 
First, there should be required studies for all who pursue a full course for 
a degree ; and secondly, the attendance at lectures and recitations should 
be compulsory. The required studies should be disciplinary, affording 
true mental training. Such studies are English, Greek, Latin, German, 
French, history, mathematics and physical science. Later in the college 
course should come biology, geology, political economy, and the mental 
sciences. All these studies should be so spread over the years passed by 
a boy at school and at college, that each step naturally leads to another. 
In other words, they should be logically arranged. The degrees of Master 
of Arts and Bachelor of Arts were instituted as incentives in those higher 
studies which have always been regarded as affording the best training 
for the human mind, and I contend that those who wish to obtain these 
degrees should be obliged to pursue the studies with which they have 
always been associated. Other degrees may be instituted, such as Bache- 
lor of Science or Bachelor of Literature, and different requirements may 



TWENTY YEARS OF PRINCETON 201 

feet language, and contains the highest literature and 
thought of antiquity. The learned professions generally, 

be prescribed for these degrees ; but let not M.A. and B.A. be awarded 
for proficiency in French or German or music or painting alone. 

In the college curriculum the mental sciences are of special importance. 
Young men should be taught to know themselves as well as to linow the out- 
side world. They should be taught that they have souls, for thus only can 
they be saved from drifting toward materialism. In Princeton we believe 
in a trinity of studies, — science, philosophy, and the languages. Berlin 
University, to which President Eliot has referred, has through its pro- 
fessors given eloquent tribute to the usefulness of the classic tongues, and 
I have known scientific men who told their pupils to study Latin and 
Greek as a preparation for physics and astronomy. Now, at Harvard, a 
young man has 200 courses from which he may choose, and many of these 
courses I am compelled to call dilettante. I should prefer a young man 
who had been trained in an old-fashioned college in rhetoric, philosophy, 
Latin, Greek, and mathematics to one who had frittered away four years 
in studying the French drama of the 18th century, a little music and 
similar branches. 

I now come to my second point — that attendance upon lectures and 
recitations should be compulsory. If a young man has freedom to choose 
his studies, he should not be allowed to come to the lecture-room one day 
and stay away the next. Professors at Harvard have complained to me 
that the optional system there in force often results in forcing them to 
lecture to empty seats. It may be said that it is enough if the student 
passes his examination at the end of the term. It is true that a man may 
become a scholar without going to college ; but being there he should 
certainly get all the advantage possible from his course. I have had 
experience in Europe of this optional system, and I have not found it 
beneficial. It invariably leads to cramming, and conscientious work is 
superseded by a feverish effort before the examination day. In Germany 
it is true that the system is practised with success. But the Germans 
have one great safeguard, which we have not, in the Bureau of State Ex- 
aminers, who stand in the path of every man who would obtain a position, 
whether civil or ecclesiastical or military. If Massachusetts should insti- 
tute such an examining board, then Harvard might safely follow her 
present course. 

I have a few words to say on specialties. Men have different talents 
and different vocations, and special studies should therefore be provided 
for them. Elective studies should be of two kinds. First, branches 
which would not be good for all, but may prove profitable to a few. Such 
studies are Hebrew, Sanskrit, and, among the sciences, palaeontology. 
Secondly, there should be elective courses in the higher departments of 



202 JAMES MCCOSH 

but particuarly the churches, have a special interest in 
retaining this tongue. Suppose it not to be required in 
our colleges, it would soon come not to be required in our 
schools, and so a large body of our students would be 
ignorant of it. Now, suppose a student to have his heart 
touched by a divine power about the time when young men 
commonly choose their profession in life. He feels himself 
called on to devote himself to the work of the ministry of 

those studies whose elements are obligatory to all. Thus all young men 
should study mathematics, but only those with a special mathematical 
taste can master quaternions, functions, or quantics. In Princeton we 
continue these elective studies side by side with obligatory and disciplinary 
branches, so that in the junior and senior years there are certain required and 
certain elective branches. In Harvard, however, everything is scattered 
like the star dust out of which worlds are said to have been made. In a 
college we should have specialists, but not mere specialists, for such are 
bigoted and intolerant. The truest and best specialist is the one who is 
well acquainted with collateral branches. From a too great choice of 
studies arise certain grave evils. Young men on entering college do not 
know their own minds, nor what is to be their future calling, and if left 
to themselves make wrong selections which impair their future usefulness. 

On the question of government, I hold that a college like a country 
needs a government. Young men need moral training as well as intel- 
lectual training. But the result of all this should be to teach them inde- 
pendence, and train them to think and act for themselves. I don't believe 
in the spy system, neither do I believe in allowing young men to drink 
and gamble without giving them a warning or a counsel. You tell me he 
is a man and must govern himself ; but what can you say of his mother's 
agony and his father's grief ? We can expel him, you say. But this is 
itself discipline, and if we may expel why may we not advise and rebuke ? 
It is a serious problem. What is to be the religious teaching of our col- 
leges ■? Huxley recommends that the Bible be used in schools. Herbert 
Spencer admits that there is no moral power in science. Emerson man- 
fully advocated the continuance of prayers at Harvard, — but I am 
approaching the subject of religion. 

In conclusion I have only to say that all who desire to see the cause of 
American scholarship prosper are discouraged by the new departure of 
Harvard, and the universities of the Old World would be shocked to learn 
that in America's oldest college the students are no longer required to fol- 
low those studies which the wisdom of ages has pointed out as being at 
the foundation of all true education. 



TWENTY YEARS OF PRINCETON 203 

the Word. But in order to do this he has to learn the lan- 
guage of the New Testament, beginning with its letters. 
Here an obstacle is presented which will effectively pre- 
vent many from going to the work to which they are called. 
It is certain that a college which does not require Greek 
will not prepare many to go forth as ministers or mission- 
aries. This would be a great evil, not only to the 
churches, but also to the community generally. The 
devout young men who are studying for the ministry 
have a restraining and elevating influence in a college. 
In Princeton there are certain branches which are 
required of all in the Academic Department : Latin and 
Greek, English, Oratory, Essay Writing, French and 
German, Physics, Astronomy, Geology, Psychology, Logic 
and Ethics, Eelation of Science and Eeligion. Again, 
we have a fixed course for every year. In the Freshman 
and Sophomore years there is little or no variation 
allowed ; but when a student has learned the rudimen- 
tary branches, and enters the Junior class, we believe 
that he may be allowed, in addition to the required 
studies, a choice, both in Junior and Senior years, among 
a large number of the new subjects introduced into the 
colleges, — additions being made to them every year. 
I reckon that usually in these two upper classes about 
one-half a student's time is given to the required and the 
other half to the elective studies. In choosing, he may 
take the old branches, or he may take the new ones. 
The advantage of all this is that the student may 
consult and gratify his tastes, — we find that an 
intense interest is taken by certain students in the 
new studies, — or the student may elect the branch or 
branches fitted to prepare him for his intended pro- 



204 JAMES MCCOSH 

fession in life. One meaning to be a minister will 
probably elect some branch of philosophy; the intend- 
ing doctor will probably take botany and zoology ; and 
the lawyer history or social sciences. 

Both in the required and in the elective courses a 
college should seek to instruct students carefully in the 
fundamental principles of the branch which they are 
studying. There is a loud demand in the present day 
for college education being made what they call " prac- 
tical." I believe that this is a mistake. A well-known 
ship-builder once said to me, " Do not try to teach my 
art in school ; see that you make the youth intelligent, 
and then I will easily teach him ship-building." The 
business of a college is to teach scientific principles of 
all sorts of practical application. The youth thus trained 
will start life in far better circumstances than those who 
have learned only the details of their craft, which are 
best learned in offices, stores, and factories, and will 
commonly far outstrip them in the rivalries of life. He 
will be able to advance when others are obliged to stop ; 
he will be ready to take advantage of opportunities 
which are lost to them, and will commonly advance the 
branch in which he is interested. 

I have often been asked, " How do the American 
colleges stand in comparison with the European ones ? " 
I believe I can answer that question. The scholarship 
of the great body of the students is as high in America 
as in Europe ; but they rear in Great Britain and in 
Germany a body of ripe scholars to whom we have noth- 
ing equal in the New World. This led me to propose 
that we should institute fellowships in Princeton College. 
At an early stage there were friends who established 



TWENTY YEAES OF PRINCETON 205 

fellowships in Mental Science, in Classics, in Mathe- 
matics, and Experimental Science, and at a later date 
in Biology, each providing $600 a year to the stu- 
dent who stood highest in a competitive examination. 
Latterly, some of our younger alumni have been adding 
university fellowships, one in Social Science, one in 
Biological Science, one in English, and probably one in 
Philosophy, each yielding $400 or $500 a year, and open 
to the graduates not only of Princeton, but every other 
authorized college. These Fellowships have given a 
powerful stimulus to study, and have enabled us to 
produce scholarship of a high order. 

This may be the proper place to refer to the prizes re- 
ceived during my presidency : the Lynde Prize, for Power 
of Debating ; the Alexander Guthrie McCosh Prize, for 
the best Philosophical Essay ; the Baird Prizes, for Ora- 
tory ; the 1876 Class Prize, for a debate on Politics ; the 
Class of 1883 Atwater Prize, in Political Science ; the 
White Prize, in Architecture. 

When I became president, the number giving instruc- 
tion was ten professors, four tutors, two teachers, — in all 
sixteen, beside three lecturers extraordinary. Some of 
the younger classes were taught solely by tutors. I 
think it of importance to have a succession of young men 
teaching in a college to give fresh life to it, and out of 
whom to draw professors ; but I believed that every 
class should have at least one man of experience giving 
it instruction, and it was arranged that all Freshmen 
should be under one or more professors. The professors 
then were chiefly men of mature life, of high ability and 
character. In adding new branches, we had to get new 
professors. It was my duty to call the attention of the 



206 JAMES MCCOSH 

trustees to suitable persons for the new or vacant offices. 
In doing so I looked out for scholarly men, wherever I 
could hear of them. If I found that they were not 
available, or not likely to promote the moral and religious 
welfare of the students, I thought no more of them ; and 
I continued to inquire till I was able to recommend one 
whose influence would be altogether for good. In pursu- 
ing this course we have taken several able men from 
other colleges. 

But I have often had great difficulty in getting a full 
endowment for a professor's chair, — more difficulty than 
in getting a building; so we set ourselves earnestly to 
the work of rearing professors. We kept our eye upon our 
promising graduates, and appointed them tutors or in- 
structors, with a small salary, and then raised them, if 
they were good teachers, to the position of assistant pro- 
fessors, or full professors. Thus the Board of Trustees 
has chosen three professors from the class of 1874, and 
six from the class of 1877. So we have been adding new 
professors from year to year. The number of professors 
is now thirty-five, with three tutors and several assist- 
ants and lecturers, — in all upwards of forty. We have 
three professors of Mental Philosophy, three of Greek, 
two of Latin, three of Mathematics, three of English, in- 
cluding Oratory, two of History and Political Science, 
three of Modern Languages, two of Physics, two of 
Astronomy, two of Chemistry, three of the Natural 
Sciences, including Botany, Zoology, and Geology, three 
of Engineering, and two of Art. We have professors who 
teach the Harmony of Science and Eeligion, who teach 
Anglo-Saxon, who teach Oratory, who teach Pedagogics, 
who teach Sanscrit, who teach Physiological Psychology, 



TWENTY YEARS OF PRINCETON 207 

wlio teacli Physical Geography, who teach Anatomy and 
Physiology. 

Every student is required every year to write a num- 
ber of essays. I am not sure that there is any college in 
America which has so well an arranged system of essay 
writing. Princeton College has always paid attention to 
public speakmg, and we have kept this up, by requiring 
every student, unless incapacitated by physical weakness, 
to speak before a public audience. The strength of our 
college lies in its staff of professors. I am proud of those 
whom I have recommended to the trustees. We give 
instruction in a greater number of branches than are 
usually taught in the universities of England, Scotland, 
and Ireland, and in nearly all the branches taught in 
Germany. 

I have pleasure in stating that the faculty has all 
along stood in the most pleasant relationship towards me. 
I regard all the members as personal friends. I am 
bound to say that they watch over the interests of the 
college with great faithfulness. 

Along with the increase of professors, our friends have 
purchased for us a large increase of scientific apparatus. 
In several departments almost every new instrument of 
yalue has been provided. When I came here, the natural- 
science collection, saving only what was done in physical 
geography by Dr. Guyot, was particularly defective, fit 
only to be burned. Now we have most valuable collec- 
tions in biology and geology. For several years we have 
been enabled to send companies of students to make 
summer explorations in the West. Lying on the ground 
at night, they were employed all day in collecting plants 
and fossils, some of which are very rare and of great 



208 JAMES MCCOSH 

value. These have been placed in our museum, which is 
visited in consequence by many scientists. 

Our professors have not only been attending to their 
work in the college as instructors, but have been widen- 
ing the field of knowledge, each in his own department. 
I at one time thought of printing a list of the books, 
pamphlets, and articles published by our professors since 
I came here, but I found that it would take sixty pages 
to do it. 

It is proper to add that the students issue three peri- 
odicals. " The Nassau Literary Magazine " has all along 
been an organ of a high character, and contains solid 

CO ' 

articles of superior literary ability. The " Princetonian " 
some years ago was in the way of attacking the faculty. 
Now it is conducted in the most admirable spirit, — only 
it gives more space to gymnastics than to literature. 
" Pray," said an Oxford Don to me, after reading several 
numbers, " are you the president of a gymnastic institu- 
tion ? " It shows the spirit that reigns in our college 
that we have had a religious organ, the " Philadelphian," 
containing high-class articles fitted to do good among the 
students. 

Our School of Science has a body of able professors. 
It gives instruction in mathematics, in the various 
branches of physical science, and in modern languages. 
We seek to make its students educated gentlemen, and 
not mere scientists. We require Latin (or, in engineering, 
French) on the part of those who enter. All the students 
receive instruction in English, and write essays. To 
preserve them from the materialistic tendencies of the 
day, they are required to attend the classes either of 
Psychology or Logic. It is evident that this school, 



TWENTY YEARS OF PRINCETON 209 

whicli has now three hundred and ninety-two students, 
will rise every year in public estimation. Our two de- 
partments, the Academic and the Scientific, send out 
every year a large body of educated young men to occupy 
important positions all over the country. 

As we added branch after branch, it was found that 
we could arrange them, the old and the new, into three 
grand departments : Language and Literature, Science, 
and Philosophy. We did not separate these absolutely, 
but we have constantly kept the distinction in view. I 
remember the day when Mrs. Eobert L. Stuart came 
down to Princeton, and handed me $154,000, to enable 
me to establish a School of Philosophy. 

As the head of the college, I have endeavored to give 
each of our varied departments its own place, and care- 
fully to arrange a balance of studies, so as to keep the 
minds of the students from being one-sided, and there- 
fore narrow and exclusive. But while I was president 
I became also a professor, and I am glad that I did so, 
for I was thereby brought into closer relationship with 
the students, and came to know them better. 

Following my tastes, I have endeavored to create and 
sustain an interest in all branches of Mental Philosophy. 
I have usually been teaching three departments : Psy- 
chology, the History of Philosophy, and Contemporary 
Philosophy, and have branched off into Esthetics and 
Metaphysics. The other two mental sciences, Logic and 
Ethics, have been taught by Professor Ormond and Pro- 
fessor Patton. I strove to make the study attractive, 
and have commonly had under me upwards of two hun- 
dred students, many of them elective. In connection 
with my classes I had library meetings in my house, 

U 



210 JAMES MCCOSH 

in which papers were read on philosophic subjects by 
alumni and others, and were afterwards discussed by 
students of the upper classes, and occasionally by pro- 
fessors. The attendance was at first about a dozen, but 
it soon rose to from seventy to one hundred and fifty. 
Many will remember all their lives the stimulating 
effects of these meetings. 

In my teaching, I have followed the plan of the Ger- 
man professors, first lecturing on the subject, and after 
a time giving my expositions to the world in published 
volumes. The public has not always followed my phi- 
losophy, but has given me — what greater men than I have 
not been able to gain — a hearing, both in this country 
and in Great Britain. I am gratified to find my college 
lectures on Psychology and Logic in a great many upper 
schools, and in a number of colleges in America. Dr. 
Duff, the great missionary, sent me a message on his 
death-bed, to prepare a text-book on Mental Science for 
India, to save them from materialism diligently taught 
them by books from England. This I have now done in 
my two small volumes on Psychology, which have been 
sanctioned by the University of Calcutta, while steps are 
being taken to have them adopted in other colleges in 
India. Pupils of mine are using them in Japan and 
Ceylon. My pupils may be pleased to learn that the lec- 
tures which I delivered to them are reproduced in these 
distant lands. So early as my college days in Scotland, 
I was so ambitious as to hope that I might some day 
produce a work on Philosophy; little did I dream that 
it would be used in Western America and in Eastern 
Asia. 

From an early period of my presidency we have had 



TWENTY YEARS OF PRINCETON 211 

post-graduate students. We have always thrown open 
our doors to them. "We encourage them because it is out 
of them we hope to make scholars. In our crowded cir- 
riculum we cannot expect in the under-graduate course 
of study to produce a high erudition in any one depart- 
ment; but when students come up to us after graduation, 
and take up earnestly one or two departments, we can 
carry them on to very high attainments, and it may 
be prepare them to be professors. The number of our 
graduate students has been gradually increasing; this 
last year we have had seventy-eight. I have commonly 
had upwards of forty, most of them students from the 
seminary, studying the higher questions of philosophy. 
These graduate classes will force us on to become a 
university. 

We have devised and published a way by which 
higher degrees of Doctor of Philosophy, Doctor of Sci- 
ence, Doctor of Literature, and Bachelor of Theology 
may be obtained from us by the graduates of any college, 
without residence, by pursuing a course of study and 
standing an examination. This is a measure full of 
promise, and I hope will be carried out when I retire. 
It will gather round us a body of men eagerly pursuing 
high studies. 

I think I may claim to have taken great pains to keep 
our graduates in close connection with the college. I 
have set up a great many alumni associations (there are 
in all eighteen), and have often visited them, travelling 
hundreds and some years thousands of miles for this pur- 
pose, and reporting the state of the college as I went 
along. I have enjoyed these meetings with the gradu- 
ates, and have returned with a most valuable knowledge 



212 JAMES MCCOSH 

of what the comiminity expects of the college. I pro- 
posed, several years ago, that the alumni should have 
authority to appoint an advisory committee, with power 
to give recommendations to the Board of Trustees, and 
to enter any class-room. The proposal was not adopted. 
It may come up in some future year. 

I am not to give an account of our finances, which 
have been carefully watched over by Mr. John A. 
Stewart and Mr. Charles E. Green. Some of our friends 
do not let their left hand know what their right hand 
doeth, and so I am not able to speak with precision of 
the gifts we have received. I believe that nearly three 
millions have been contributed to the college during my 
tenure of office. The principle on which we have pro- 
ceeded has been never to contract any debt, and never to 
lay up any money. Only on one occasion did we con- 
tract any large amount of debt, and Mr. E. L. Stuart, 
who contributed $100,000, joined some of our trustees 
in paying it off. 

I may mention here that, to encourage struggling young 
men, we have funds contributed by generous friends 
whereby we give scholarships of $100 a year each, and 
$30 more if they intend to be ministers, to one hundred 
and seventy students. Dr. Duffield manages these funds 
with great care and kindness. 

I am sorry that my space does not allow of my men- 
tioning the names of the many contributors to our college 
funds. Some of them have been referred to in the course 
of my narrative. I must refer to a few others. The 
Hon. John I. Blair has watched over our college with 
very great care, has endowed the chair of Geology, and 
has lately given $20,000 to the increase of professors' 



TWENTY YEARS OF PRINCETON 213 

salaries. Mr. Lynde has given three prizes for excel- 
lence in debate. A gentleman who has given us only 
his initials has founded a Mathematical Fellowship, and 
a large prize to the Freshman class. Mr. Charles 0. 
Baird has furthered oratory by his prizes to the Junior 
class. We have received a most valuable set of papers 
on the late war from Mr. Pierson. You may notice that 
kind friends have enabled me to complete the work 
begun by Dr. Maclean, and to hang up in the Museum 
portraits of all the presidents of the college, and of other 
eminent men connected with it. 

In consequence of the improvements of our teaching 
and our courses, our numbers have been slowly but 
gradually increasing. 

Years. Students. 



Years. 


Students. 


1867-8 


264 


1868-9 


281 


1869-70 


328 


1870-1 


364 


1871-2 


379 


1872-3 


376 


1873-4 


417 


1874-5 


408 


1875-6 


483 


1876-7 


472 


1877-8 


496 



1878-9 


473 


1879-80 


481 


1880-1 


488 


1881-2 


537 


1882-3 


572 


1883-4 


523 


1884-5 


519 


1885-6 


497 


1886-7 


539 


1887-8 


604 



It will be thus seen that our numbers have more than 
doubled — from two hundred and sixty -four to upwards 
of six hundred. 

I think it proper to state that I meant all along that 
these new and varied studies, with their groupings and 
combinations, should lead to the formation of a Studium 
Generate, which was supposed in the Middle Ages to 
constitute a university. At one time I cherished a hope 



214 JAMES MCCOSH 

that I might be honored to introduce such a measure. 
From my intimate acquaintance with the systems of 
Princeton and other colleges, I was so vain as to think 
that out of our available materials I could have con- 
structed a university of a high order. I would have 
embraced in it all that is good in our college; in par- 
ticular, I would have seen that it was pervaded with 
religion, as the college is. I was sure that such a step 
would have been followed by a large outflow of liberality 
on the part of the public, such as we enjoyed in the early 
days of my presidency. We had had the former rain, 
and I hoped we might have the latter rain, and we could 
have given the institution a wider range of usefulness in 
the introduction of new branches and the extension of 
post-graduate studies. But this privilege has been denied 
me. I have always been prepared to contend with the 
enemies of the college, but I am not ready to fight with 
its greatest benefactors; so I retire. The college has 
been brought to the very borders, and I leave it to 
another to carry it over into the land of promise. 



CHAPTER XIV 

AUTOBIOGKAPHICAL — TWENTY TEARS OF 
PEIlsrCETON ( Continued) 

T^ZHILE this improvement of education was going on, 
we had to contend against degrading college cus- 
toms, some of which have come down from colonial times, 
and were copied from the schools of England. There were 
" rakes, " secretly issued by the members of one class 
against the members of another. We had horn-sprees and 
foolish bonfires kindled in the campus, the embers often 
endangering the whole college buildings. Worst of all, we 
had the " hazing " and the " smoking " of students. I re- 
solved to put down these, when I found that they had the 
serpent's power of prolonged life, and that it was difficult 
to kill them. I tried first of all to make the class con- 
demn them, and often succeeded ; but at times we had to 
exercise discipline on the offenders, who were commonly 
supported by a considerable body of students. I would 
not be giving a true picture of the times when I entered 
on my duties unless I mentioned one or two cases. 

At that time morning prayers were held at seven, and 
the students came out rubbing their eyes, with their 
great-coats thrown loosely over their shoulders, and but- 
toning their clothes. One morning I saw a student with 
his head all " shaven and shorn. " I called up a tutor, 
and asked him whether the student had had fever. 



216 JAMES MCCOSH 

" ¥o, " said he ; " did you not hear that he had been 
hazed ? " I told him that I had not, but added that the 
whole college would hear of it before we had done with it. 
Knowing that if I called the hazed student to my house 
it would only be to expose him to farther indignity, I 
asked a professor to give me the use of his study, and 
invited the student to meet me there. When I asked 
how he felt on being hazed, he replied, " Very indig- 
nant. " I said I was glad to hear it. He told me that 
a company of students, disguised, had come into his 
room late at night, that they gagged his mouth lest he 
should cry, and his ears lest he should identify them ; 
that they had shaved his head, then put him under the 
pump, and left him tied on the campus. I asked him 
if he had any friends. He answered, " Few, sir ; I am a 
poor Irish boy, but one man has helped me ; " naming 
Chancellor Green. " My dear fellow, you have a noble 
friend. " I wrote a letter to the Chancellor, and ordered 
the student to set off with it next morning before dawn, 
and tell what had been done to him. Next morning, a 
little after eight, I saw the noble form of the Chancellor 
pass my window and enter my study. Hitherto he had 
been very cold toward me, — I believe he did not see the 
propriety of bringing over a Scotchman to be the head of 
an American college. He asked me somewhat sternly, 
" Are you in earnest ? " I answered that I was never more 
in earnest in my life. " But, " said he, " I have often 
found when I tried to uphold the college in putting down 
evils there was a weak yielding. " I told him that he 
might find that this was not just my character. He 
asked me what I meant to do. I answered that I was a 
stranger, newly come to this country, that I had asked 



TWENTY YEARS OF PRINCETON 217 

for a conference with him — an' alumnus, a trustee, and 
as the head of the law in New Jersey — to ask his advice. 
" Can you not, " said he, " summon the perpetrators before 
the faculty ? " " Yes, " I replied, " but I have little evi- 
dence to proceed on. The student thinks he knows two 
of those who gagged him, but is not sure ; and students 
capable of such deeds reckon it no crime to lie to the 
faculty. " " What then are we to do ? " I replied that I 
wished him to say. But he again asked, " Are you in 
earnest ? " I said " he might try me. " He then pro- 
posed that we should start a criminal process, and said 
he would engage the attorney-general as prosecutor, and 
would see that the jury was not packed. I said, " I 
accept your terms, " and added, " You may now go home. 
Chancellor, the case is settled. " He asked, " What do 
you mean ? " looking at me with amazement. I simply 
mentioned that I had been dealing with students for six- 
teen years, and knew that the case was settled, I felt 
that the time was come when I should be as cold to him 
as he had been to me. I thanked him for coming to me 
when I meant to go to him, and bade him good-morning. 
I asked a professor to send for one of the students sup- 
posed to have been guilty, and to tell him that the great 
Chancellor had been here, that he was that day to engage 
the attorney-general as prosecutor, and that if the guilty 
parties did not send me an apology in forty-eight hours 
they would all be in prison. In a few hours I received 
a humble letter, signed by about a dozen students, con- 
fessing that they were guilty, expressing their sorrow, 
and promising that they would never commit a like 
offence. I sent a message to the professors, asking them 
to be in their place next morning at prayers, and the 



218 JAMES MCCOSH 

students were prepared for something to come when they 
saw them all assembled. I took out the paper sent me, 
and read it till I came to the signatures, when I put it 
in my pocket, saying, " I accept the apology and the 
promise, and neither the faculty nor any other shall ever 
know the names. Let us read the passsage on repent- 
ance, 2 Cor. vii. " I never saw the college more moved. 

For some years hazing was considerably subdued ; but 
it continued in other colleges which have not had the 
courage to grapple with it, and has reappeared in this 
college once and again, and has led to some very painful 
scenes. It has for the present disappeared, as I retire from 
the presidency, I trust finally. 

As a happy consequence of this act I gained the friend- 
ship of Chancellor Green, who ever afterwards stood by 
me in the Board of Trustees and beyond it, telling those 
who opposed my measures that in opposing me they 
would have to oppose him. His family became deeply 
interested in the college, and have been our most gener- 
ous benefactors. I was gratified when his family asked 
me to be a mourner at the funeral of that man, one of 
the greatest that New Jersey has produced.^ 

I may state that this was the first and last case in 
which I resolved to carry discipline into a criminal court. 
I thought it right to let the college know that the crim- 
inal courts could interfere in such a case ; but it is better 
that the faculty should exercise discipline in a paternal 
spirit. Another incident may be given. A company 
resolved to " smoke " a student. They entered his room, 

^ Mr. Courtland Parker said to me, as we rode in the same carriage at 
Chancellor Green's funeral, " When the Chancellor summed up the evi- 
dence and addressed the criminal condemned to die, I always felt that I 
had a picture of the Day of Judgment." 



TWENTY YEARS OF PRINCETON 219 

vigorously puffing out tobacco fumes, hoping thereby to 
sicken him. The faculty sent them home to their fathers 
and mothers. At the close of one of my Bible recitations 
about twenty students remained behind, and asked to 
speak with me, and they spoke feelingly of the pain 
which the dismissal of their companions would give to 
fathers and mothers and grandmothers. I saw at once 
that I had before me, not those who had been engaged in 
the foul deed, but the best students in the class, who had 
been elected as most likely to have an influence over 
me. It occurred to me that I might catch them in the 
trap which they had laid for me. I said to them, " Do 
you approve of the deed which has been done ? " " No, " 
they answered heartily. " But how, " I asked, " do you 
propose to stop such acts ? " They were staggered. I 
saw out of the window two hundred students gathered 
like a thunder-cloud on the campus, threatening rebel- 
lion. I said, " Gentlemen, go out to these students and 
ask them to pass a resolution condemning the offensive 
practice ; " and I promised that if they did so I would 
ask the faculty to rescind their sentence. I passed by 
the crowd on my way home, and heard a student 
denouncing the abominable deed that had been com- 
mitted by the students. The company was divided 
and soon scattered. They had planned on that after- 
noon to rise in a body and leave the chapel. No one 
rose, and the threatening cloud passed away. 

When these emeutes took place we were always favored 
with the visits of interviewers from the New York news- 
papers. I remember that one day when I was coming 
down from New York, I had a dozen reporters on the 
same train, all bent on carrying back a sensational story 



220 JAMES MCCOSH 

founded on some small disturbance which had occurred 
the night before. At one of these times a reporter from 
a reputable journal called on me for information. I told 
him that I would give him this, but that he must pub- 
lish what I said to him, which he agreed to do, and so I 
began : " Whereas a certain newspaper, " naming it, " had 
been publishing vile stories against Princeton College, 
evidently written by sub-editors from a rival college, the 
alumni and students of Princeton are about to form a 
combination in which each member binds himself never 
to buy a copy of that paper." The reporter wrote a 
while, and then put his pen behind his ear, and said, 
" President, this will never do, " and promised to speak 
to the editor ; and in a day or two after the editor wrote 
me, asking me to appoint a reporter from among the 
students, and we were troubled no more from that 
quarter. 

I mention these things in order to give me an oppor- 
tunity of explaining that these scenes of disturbance, 
which were reported years ago in so exaggerated a form, 
almost always rose from our putting down debasing cus- 
toms. I could not in dignity answer the distorted 
reports, and many believed them. We have now, 
happily, put down all these old barbarous customs, and 
of late years I have no complaint to make of the news- 
paper press. It seems inclined to speak good of us 
rather than evil; as to myself, I am sure it praises, 
vastly more than they deserve, the efforts I have made 
for the advancement of the college. 

I do not wish to fight old battles over again, but if I 
am to give a correct account of the period, I must mention 
the important historical events. 



TWENTY YEARS OF PRINCETOJf 221 

When I became connected -with Princeton, the secret 
Greek Letter Fraternities had considerable power in the 
college. The trustees, years before, had passed a law 
requiring every entering student to come under a solemn 
obligation to have no connection whatever with any secret 
society. I felt from the beginning that the college was 
in this respect in a very unhappy position, the students 
signing a pledge which a number of them knowingly 
violated. On inquiry I discovered that while some of 
the societies did mean to foster pleasant social feelings, 
and to create a taste for oratory, yet their influence was 
upon the whole for evil. I soon found that the societies 
sought to get the college honors to their members, and 
to support those who were under college discipline. I 
felt that as the head of the college I must put an end to 
this state of things. 

I was powerfully aided, or rather led in carrying this 
out, by the late Dr. Atwater, who had more credit than 
I in suppressing the secret societies. One courageous 
student set himself vigorously to oppose the attempt to 
get the college honors for members of the fraternities. 
The difficulty was to get evidence ; but certain lodges got 
photographs taken of their members. These fell into 
our hands. The offenders stood clearly before us. I 
summoned them before the faculty. They did not deny 
the charge, and we sent them home. In a short time 
each sent in a paper in which he promised to give up, 
while in college, all connection with secret societies. I 
retained these papers for a time to secure that the promise 
should be kept, but I have shown them to no one. The 
faculty restored the students, who, I believe, kept their 
word. Now the great body of the students would 



222 JAMES MCCOSH 

earnestly oppose the reintroduction of these fraternities 
into our college. Most of the professors in the American 
colleges profess to lament the existence of such societies, 
but have not the courage to suppress them. I am sorry 
to find that of late some eminent men belonging to other 
colleges have been defending these secret organizations. 

One of the greatest evils arising from the Greek letter 
societies is that they tended to lessen the numbers and 
usefulness of our two noble societies, — the Wliig and the 
Cliosophic. These form an essential part of our educa- 
tional system. They have done as much good as any 
other department of our college teaching. They have 
helped mightily to prepare our young men for the pulpit, 
the bar, and the senate. I may be permitted to suggest 
that the customs connected with initiation into the Halls 
might be profitably abandoned. I farther think that the 
societies should be so opened that from time to time 
each should have great public debates open to ladies as 
well as gentlemen. Not till then can we have the 
highest style of popular eloquence. 

I feel a great pride in remembering that I intro- 
duced gymnastics into the college. The sentence of my 
inaugural, in which I declared that there should be 
exercises in the colleges to strengthen the bodily frame, 
called forth acclamations so loud that they might have 
carried the roof off the building. Since that time gym* 
nasties have had an important place under careful super- 
intendents, and our students have manfully kept their 
own. From the gymnastic exercises within our walls 
and grounds much good has arisen and no evil. The 
bodily frames of our students have been strengthened, 
and their health sustained by the manly exercises, while 



TWENTY YEARS OF PRINCETON 223 

habits of mental agility and self-possession have been 
acquired, of great use in preparing young men for the 
active duties of life. 

But there may be, there have been, evils arising from 
the abuse of competitive games, especially with profes- 
sionals. The applause given may create an enthusiasm 
which should rather be directed to study. Some may 
prefer the approving shout of ten thousand spectators on 
the ball-field to the earning of a class honor or a uni- 
versity fellowship. The youth who can skilfully throw a 
ball may be more highly esteemed than one of high schol- 
arship or character. Your strutting college heroes may 
consist of men who have merely powerful arms and legs. 

It is acknowledged that some of our greatest gymnasts 
have been as scholarly and pious as any members of their 
class. There is no necessary or even usual connection 
between gymnastic eminence and immorality ; but there 
may be some half-dozen or ten in each class of a hundred 
who devote so much time and mind to the games that 
they neglect their studies, and virtually lose their college 
year. The games may be accompanied with betting and 
drinking. They may tend in some cases to produce the 
manners of a bully or a jockey rather than of a scholar 
or a cultivated gentleman. The talk of the students in 
the campus may be more about the nice points of foot- 
ball than of literature or science. The style of gaming 
may become professional instead of being promotive of 
health, and the great body of the students, instead of 
joining in the exercises, may stand by and look idly on, 
others playing. 

The question presses itself upon us, " How are we to 
get the acknowledged good without the accompanying 



224 JAMES MCCOSH 

evils ? " The question is keenly discussed ; I hope it 
will continue to be discussed till it is satisfactorily 
settled. Twice have I made the attempt to bring the 
principal Eastern colleges to an agreement. The col- 
leges were willing to unite, except one or two, who trade 
upon their gymnastic eminence to gain students. As 
these stood out nothing could be done. But things have 
come to a crisis. Harvard and Yale now profess to see 
the evils that arise from competitive games. Let the 
discussion continue ; let it be publicly conducted ; let it 
be known what position each college takes ; let fathers 
and mothers say what they wish for their sons ; let the 
public press speak boldly. The issue within the next 
few years will be that we shall have the good without the 
evil. Meanwhile, let Princeton proclaim that her repu- 
tation does not depend on her skill in throwing or kicking 
a ball, but on the scholarship and the virtue of her sons. 

If any one tells me that in a college with hundreds of 
students there is no vice, he is either deceiving himself 
or is endeavoring to deceive others. We acknowledge 
that there are evils in our college, but we do all we can 
to repress them. Of late years there has been very little 
vicious conduct in Princeton College ; what exists is 
obliged to hide itself. The great body of the students 
discountenance it^and do not, as they were often tempted 
to do in former years, defend those who may be under 
discipline. 

I hold that in every college the faculty should look 
after, not only the intellectual improvement, but also 
the morals of those committed to their care by parents 
and guardians. I am afraid that both in Europe and 
America all idea of looking after the character of students 



TWENTY YEARS OF PRINCETON 225 

has been given up by many of our younger professors. 
Their feeling is, " I am bound to give instruction in my 
department, and to advance the study in all quarters; 
but as to looking after the private character of any 
student, I do not recognize it to be part of my duty, and 
I shrink from it, I decline to undertake it. " I have 
been very careful not to let this spirit get abroad among 
our young instructors. Our law enjoins tha^t every pro- 
fessor is bound in duty to watch over the welfare of the 
students, many of whom are far from home. We have a 
tutor or officer in every college building, whose office it is 
to see that those living there conduct themselves properly. 

We have abandoned the spy system, and our officers do 
not peep in at windows, or through keyholes, — a prac- 
tice at which the student would generally contrive to 
outwit his guardian. With us everything is open and 
above board. We proceed on the principle that the col- 
lege stands in loco parentis. The youth is treated as he 
would be by a parent. We listen patiently to every one 
against whom ^ suspicion is entertained, or a charge 
brought. We dismiss no one without evidence, and 
latterly there is rarely, if ever, a case in which the cul- 
prit does not confess his guilt. Our penalties consist in 
sending home the youth for a shorter or longer time to 
his parents, that they may deal with him. 

For sixteen years I had the somewhat invidious task 
of looking after the morals and discipline of the college. 
Since that time this important work has been committed 
to Dean Murray, who has shown more patience than I 
did in the discharge of his duties. Parents may be 
satisfied when they know that he is looking after the 
best welfare of their sons. 

15 



226 JAMES MCCOSH 

I could weep this day, if I did not restrain myself, 
over some who have fallen when with us. But I am 
able to say that when parents join with us in the exer- 
cise of discipline, it commonly succeeds in accomplishing 
its end, — the reformation of the offender. We have the 
privilege and the ativantage of a great many of the youths 
sent us having been well trained at home. I am able to 
testify that God has been faithful to his promise, " Train 
up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, 
he will not depart from it. " 

There is a much more pleasant relationship between 
the professors and the students of late years. It is a 
much easier thing now to govern the college. This is 
especially so since a provision has been made for a con- 
ference between the faculty and an elected committee of 
the students as to judicial cases. I doubt much whether 
such a measure could have been made to work beneficially 
in some earlier years, as the students might have chosen 
representatives to fight with the faculty. This confer- 
ence, long contemplated by me, has been carried into 
effect by Dean Murray, with the happiest results. 

I believe the moral tone of the college is, upon the 
whole, sound at this present moment. Lately the 
students, with my consent and approval, held a mass- 
meeting, and denounced the base men who send them 
obscene publications by mail. At the same meeting 
they voted unanimously for No License in this town, 
and helped greatly in carrying this measure in the borough. 
I cannot tell how happy I am to think that when I give 
up my office in the college, there is not a place for the 
sale of spirituous liquors in all Princeton. 



CHAPTER XV 

AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL — TWENTY TEAES OF 
PRINCETON {Continued) 

TJ^EOM the beginning Princeton has been a religious 
college, professedly and really. It has given instruc- 
tion weekly on the Bible, and has required attendance at 
prayers daily, and on public worship on the Sabbath, 
The prayers in the chapel are conducted by the president 
and professors in their turn, and the preaching by those 
of us who are ministers, and very frequently now by 
eminent divines who are invited to visit us. Dean 
Murray conducts public worship with great acceptance 
once a fortnight. Our Sabbath services of late years are 
not found to be tedious by the students. Every Sabbath 
afternoon at five there is a meeting of the whole college 
for prayer, and a ten-minutes' address, which is com- 
monly interesting as well as useful. 

There is much talk in certain quarters of the impor- 
tance of giving instruction in the English Bible in col- 
leges. Let me tell those who are recommending this to 
us, that this has always been done in Princeton. "We are 
not ashamed, neither professors nor students, of the gospel 
of Jesus Christ. 

In entering upon my work here I found some difficulty 
in inducing those who had previously conducted religious 
instruction to continue to do so, so I undertook the whole 



228 JAMES MCCOSH 

work myself. For eight years I gave Bible instruction 
weekly to every student. My course lasted four years, 
and in these I carried the students in a general way 
through the Bible. 

I am not sure that I acted wisely in undertaking all 
this work. At the end of the eight years I divided the 
work among several others, reserving always to myself 
an important part, — the Pentateuch and the Epistle to 
the Eomans, — on which the Seniors were required to 
recite. Latterly I have given up the whole Bible 
instruction to seven or eight others. Dean Murray gives 
instruction to the Seniors in the doctrinal teachings of 
the Gospels and the Epistles. 

The majority of the students have always been pro- 
fessors of religion. One year there were two-thirds, and 
this year there are three-fifths. I am able to testify that 
these students as a whole, and with some human infirm- 
ities, live consistently with the profession which they 
make. At this present time we have three hundred and , 
sixty-five names on the roll of the Philadelphia Society, 
which is the special religious association of the college, 
and which has been the centre of the spiritual life among 
us for many years. 

We have had our times of gracious revival. I remem- 
ber one year which began with a season of great religious 
apathy. The number attending our prayer-meetings was 
very small, — perhaps twenty or thirty. But we had a 
few devoted men, some of whom had come from another 
college, who prayed as earnestly as ever men prayed, 
saying to God, " I will not let thee go except thou 
bless me. " 

One night there was heard in our campus the noise 



TWENTY YEARS OF PRINCETON 229 

of a company who had been drinking. We summoned 
before the faculty a number of students, whose names 
had been called as they were returning to their rooms. 
We had difficulty in making them confess. After deal- 
ing for more than an hour with one young man, — now 
a lawyer in high standing, — in which he continued 
parrying me off, he burst out : " President, I can stand 
this no longer. I was drinking, and I fear I am getting 
fond of drink. " We sent the band home for a time. 
They returned, deploring their conduct. Our act of dis- 
cipline was blessed by God. The college was moved, 
many betook themselves to prayer. Prayer-meetings 
were numerous and earnest. Dozens were converted, and 
have ever since continued steadfast in the faith. 

In 1876 we had a deep religious revival. Meetings 
for conference and prayers were held by the students 
every day and every night. Every student, indeed every 
member of the college, felt awed and subdued. It was 
estimated that upwards of one hundred were converted. 
I know that the great body of them, if not all, have con- 
tinued faithful, are leading consistent lives, and are 
doing good over wide regions in this land and in others. 
On one occasion some strange fire mingled at times with 
the fire from off the altar of God. There was a jealousy 
of the faculty on the part of a number of the students. 
Some of the strangers who came here to address them 
kept studiously away from the president and professors, 
lest it should be thought that the work was a scheme of 
the college authorities ; but the few evils that appeared 
were overwhelmed and lost sight of in the midst of the 
good that was done. When the excitement was some- 
what dying down, the students felt the need of the wise 



230 JAMES MCCOSH 

counsel of their college instructors, and came to put 
confidence in them. 

In later years the religious interest has not so often 
taken the form of what is called a revival ; but all along 
we have had, every year or two, seasons of deep religious 
earnestness, as in 1870, in 1872, in 1874, in 1882, in 
1886. At the beginning of this year we had such a time 
on the occasion of the visit of Professor Drummond and 
two professors from the University of Edinburgh. At 
these times the meetings for prayer were frequent and 
well attended, and there were short meetings for worship 
conducted by students in the college entries, about nine 
at night, to which all students in the entry were invited. 
On these occasions pains were taken to secure that every 
student, especially such as had made no profession of 
religion, was spoken to about the state of his soul. 
It may be said truly that no student has left our college 
without the way of salvation having been made known 
from the pulpit on the Sabbath, by the weekly Bible 
instruction of professors, and by the repeated personal 
appeals of his pious fellow-students. 

In 1877 a convention was held in Louisville for the 
purpose of organizing societies for Christian work in 
every college. One of our professors. Dr. Libbey, was 
induced to become a leader in this movement. He and 
Mr. Wishard, a student of ours engaged as secretary, 
visited a great many of the colleges of the country, and 
succeeded in establishing Christian associations in them. 
These have ever since been the centres of religious life, 
and have great influence in promoting religion in the 
colleges. By means of them the colleges can combine 
to further any good cause. They are in friendly rela- 



TWENTY YEARS OF PRINCETON 231 

tionship with the Young Men's Christian Association of 
America. 

In 1886 two of our students, Mr. Wilder and Mr. 
Forman, sons of missionaries, being stimulated by resid- 
ing in the summer in Northfield, under Mr. Moody, 
resolved to visit the colleges in New England, Canada, 
and the Middle States, in order to engage students, 
young men and young women, to devote themselves to 
the work of the Lord as missionaries in the foreign field. 
They succeeded in getting no fewer than twenty-five 
hundred to profess their readiness to go where Christ 
might require. This is, I believe, a genuine work. At 
this present time there is a very deep interest, greater 
than has ever been before, in foreign missions among the 
students of the college and seminary. A meeting for 
prayer is held after the morning service in the chapel, 
attended by about thirty persons, all purposing to go 
abroad as missionaries. A year ago the college students 
raised the funds to pay a missionary, and Mr. Forman 
has been sent out as the Princeton College missionary to 
India. Princeton College, during my presidency, has 
sent out at least three hundred men as ministers, or 
preparing for the ministry. I know of at least twenty- 
five missionaries sent out during the same period to the 
foreign field. 

Thank God, we have had scarcely any avowed infidelity 
among us. Not above half a dozen out of our two thou- 
sand and more students have left us declaring that they 
had no religious belief. Several of this small number 
have since become decided Christians. The truth which 
had been addressed to them here stuck as a barbed arrow 
in their hearts, till God gave them relief. One young 



232 JAMES MCCOSH 

man while here had set himself against all religion. 
Three years after graduation he was elected to deliver 
the master's oration, and he came back among us to give 
a noble defence of the truth. On another occasion, I 
sent for a young man who had just graduated, of whom 
I feared that he had no religious faith. After talking 
with him seriously, I asked if he would allow me to 
pray with him. He declined, saying that he did not 
believe in a God to whom to pray. So we parted. I 
had hope of him, knowing that he had a pious mother. 
I gave him a letter which helped him to get a govern- 
ment position in Washington. Some years after, I had 
occasion to deliver some lectures in Cincinnati, and was 
living in a hotel there. A stranger, who turned out to 
have graduated at Princeton before my day, came up to 
me and asked, " How is it that you make infidels in 
Princeton ? " I answered that this was not just our voca- 
tion. He then began to tell me of a young man who 
lived in the same boarding-house with him in Washing- 
ton, who had been an open-mouthed infidel, perpetually 
quoting Huxley and Spencer, and avowing himself an 
agnostic. I guessed who the young man was at once. 
After keeping me in a state of anxiety for a time, he 
said that he might be able to report something that 
would gratify me, and he told me that this young man 
had gone to his mother to convert her ; " But, " he added, 
" she floored him, " and now he is a member of the Young 
Men's Christian Association, and is delivering addresses 
on religion. Not long after, this youth called on me 
with his newly-married wife. On the same chair on 
which he was seated when he declined to pray with me 
he now asked me to pray with him. He is now a min- 



TWENTY YEARS OF PRINCETON 233 

ister of the gospel, and when I saw him last he was 
purposing to become a missionary. I pray that there 
may be a like issue in the case of the few who are still 
wandering. 

Happily, I have never had any difficulty in dealing 
with students on the religious question. I have had 
under me Catholics as well as Protestants of all denom- 
inations, Jews, and heathen. I have religiously guarded 
the sacred rights of conscience. I have never insisted 
on any one attending a religious service to which he 
conscientiously objected. With scarcely an exception, 
the students have attended our daily morning prayers 
in the chapel, and also our weekly religious instruction. 
We allow them to go to their own place of worship on 
the Sabbath. The Episcopalians have a St. Paul's 
Society, which we encourage. It is an interesting fact 
that during all my presidency no one has left the Presby- 
terian Church while in college to join any other 
communion. 

In the instruction we give by lectures and recitations, 
we do not subject religion to science ; but we are equally 
careful not to subject science to religion. We give to 
each its own independent place, supported by its own 
evidence. We give to science the things that belong to 
science, and to God the things that are God's. When a 
scientific theory is brought before us, our first inquiry is 
not whether it is consistent with religion, but whether 
it is true. If it is found to be true, on the principle of 
the induction of Bacon, it will be found that it is con- 
sistent with religion, on the principle of the unity of 
truth. We do not reject a scientific truth because at 
first sight it seems opposed to revelation. We have seen 



234 JAMES MCCOSH 

that geology, which an age ago seemed to be contrary to 
Scripture, has furnished many new illustrations of the 
wisdom and goodness of God, and that the ages of geol- 
ogy have a wonderful general correspondence with the 
six days of the opening of Genesis. It will be remem- 
bered that the late Dr. Stephen Alexander defended Kant 
and Laplace's theory of the formation of the earth (sub- 
stantially true, though it is now shown that it has over- 
looked some agencies at work), which was supposed to 
be inconsistent with religion. I have been defending 
Evolution, but, in doing so, have given the proper account 
of it as the method of God's procedure, and find that 
when so understood it is in no way inconsistent with 
Scripture. I have been thanked by pupils who see Evo- 
lution everywhere in nature because I have so explained 
it that they can believe both in it and in Scripture. ^ I 

1 Berkeley, Cal., March 1, 1888. 
Dr. James McCosh : 

Mt dear Sir, — Many and hearty thanks for the beautiful little vol- 
ume of your lectures received a few days ago. I have delayed acknowl- 
edgment until I had read it. I have now done so with intense interest. I 
am convinced that you are doing a good and very important work in show- 
ing that evolution is not necessarily atheistic, nor in any way antagonistic 
to a true religious belief. The Church has been, and still is, in serious 
danger of again placing itself in antagonism with scientific truth. . . , 
With great respect, 

Yours very truly, 

Joseph Le Contb. 

Ex-President White, of Cornell, considering the same subject in a 
series of articles published in the " Popular Science " Monthly, wrote as 
follows : 

"In one of his personal confidences he has let us into the secret of this 
matter. With that hard Scotch sense which had won the applause of 
Thackeray in his well-known verses, he saw that the most dangerous thing 
which could be done to Christianity at Princeton was to reiterate in the 
university pulpit, week after week, solemn declarations that if evolution 



TWENTY YEARS OF PRINCETON 235 

believe that whatever supposed discrepancies may come 
up for a time between science and revealed truth will 
soon disappear, that each will confirm the other, and 
both will tend to promote the glory of God. 

During all this time a careful Providence has been 
watching over us. We have had no fire or flood to 
devastate us. The health of our students has been 
remarkably good. There have scarcely been any deaths 
within our walls. In making this statement I have to 
mention one sad exception. If I did not restrain myself 
I would weep as I think of it. In 1880, seven or eight 
young men were taken away by typhoid fever. I do 
not feel as if I were specially to blame, as the sanitary 
arrangements were not committed to me ; but we college 
authorities were so far to blame, and I am afraid that 
we have scarcely made atonement by immediately after, 
at a large expense, making the sanitary condition of 
the college thoroughly satisfactory. For hours, day and 
night, was I employed in visiting the dying, and com- 
forting their parents. The thought of these weeks is the 
most painful remembrance of my Princeton life. 

I am led, this day, to look back on my past life in 
Princeton. I believe I can say truly that I have coveted 
no man's silver or gold. The little I have laid up for 
old age I owe to a revered father who cultivated the 

by natural selection, or, indeed, evolution at all, be true, the Scriptures 
are false. McCosb tells us that he saw that this was the certain way to 
make the students unbelievers ; he therefore not only gave a check to this 
dangerous preaching, but preached an opposite doctrine. With him began 
the inevitable compromise, and in spite of mutterings against him as a 
Darwinian, he carried the day. . . . Other divines of strong sense in other 
parts of the country began to take similar ground — namely, that men 
could be Christians and at the same time believe iu the Darwinian 
theory." 



236 JAMES MCCOSH 

land in Scotland, and to a beloved son, whose remains I 
have laid in your graveyard, expecting at no distant day 
to have my own laid beside them. I owe no man any- 
thing, but love to all men, gratitude for the favors 
bestowed on me, — far greater than any I have bestowed 
on others. I trust I have lived for a higher end than 
riches, or power, or fame. For sixteen years I was a 
laborious minister of the gospel, having in one of the 
churches I served upwards of one thousand four hundred 
communicants. For the last thirty-five years I have been 
instructing young men, and in Princeton have commonly 
had each year two hundred young men studying philos- 
ophy under me. For all this I have to give account 
to God. 

I trust I have not been unmindful of the injunction to 
be " given to hospitality. " My income, happily we may 
suppose, did not admit of my giving extravagant enter- 
tainments; but when college duties did not prevent, I 
often asked the fathers and mothers of students — quite 
as frequently the poor as the rich — to come to my 
house, and in this way I became acquainted with the 
families of many of the young men. From time to time 
I had class-receptions, in which the students were 
brought into closer relationship with one another, with 
my family, and the people of the town. I sought to give 
every student an entertainment in my house once a year. 
By these means I have endeavored in a small way to 
make college life less monastic and exclusive, and to 
cherish pleasant social feelings. In this respect, and in 
every respect, I have been aided by Mrs. McCosh, pro- 
vided to be my comfort, and who is appreciated by the 
students as bein" their friend in health and in sickness. 



TWENTY YEARS OF PRINCETON 237 

It would be altogether a mistake for any one to sup- 
pose that the life of a college president is a dull or 
monotonous one. If he has any life in himself, he will 
be interested in the whole life of the college, and no 
institution has more life than a college. The students 
feel this in the recitation-rooms, in their own rooms, on 
the campus, and at their games ; and why should not the 
president's heart beat responsive to theirs ? There is 
something happening every day, almost every hour of 
the day, to call forth feeling; sometimes, I admit, of 
disappointment or sorrow, more frequently of hope and 
joy, as notice is brought of the success of this or that 
young man. There are the father and mother presenting 
their boy, their hearts trembling with anxiety, while the 
youth is wondering at what is to happen. I have been 
liable every hour to have calls made upon me. It is a 
mother asking how her son is doing, and is so pleased 
when I can report favorably. It is a student waiting on 
me to consult about his studies or his financial diffi- 
culties, to ask me to help him to get a certain position, 
or to teli me of the death of a father or sister. I was 
never disturbed by such calls; I often gathered a con- 
siderable amount of knowledge from them. The callers 
never stayed too long, or annoyed me by improper 
requests. I have found, when I was following some 
deep philosophic theme, and had run aground, that I was 
relieved by a student coming in to divert my thoughts, 
and I returned to my studies to find the difficulties gone. 
I have rejoiced when I found any young man advancing 
in his studies, particularly when he was eagerly pursu- 
ing some high branch. I confess that I scarcely know 
what to do with myself after I am separated from these 



238 JAMES MOCOSH 

interesting associations and employments on which so 
much of my happiness has depended these many years. 

For the last thirty-five years my intercourse has been 
chiefly with young men. My heart has been in my 
work, and I have delighted to lecture to them, to listen 
to the questions they put to me when they were per- 
plexed about some of the deeper problems of philosophy 
or religion. Two circumstances so far help to reconcile 
me to the position I have now to take. The first, that 
I am to be succeeded by one in whom I have thorough 
confidence that he will carry on the work which has been 
begun ; no, but that he will carry on a work of his own. 
Possessed of the highest intellectual powers, he will 
devote them all to the good of this college. With un- 
rivalled dialectic skill he will ever be ready to defend 
the truth. I am not sure that we have in this country 
at this moment a more powerful defender of the faith. 
Carrying at his side a sharp two-edged sword, he uses it 
only against error. I can leave with confidence these 
young men to his care, believing that he will watch 
carefully over their training in knowledge, in morals, 
and in religion. I am particularly happy when I think 
that philosophy, and this of a high order, and favoring 
religion, is safe in his hands, and will be handed down 
by him to the generation following. I feel that I will 
have to say, " What have I done now in comparison of 
you ? Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better 
than the vintage of Abiezer ? " 

Secondly, I am pleased to find that I have still some 
place in this college. I should like to bring forth some 
" fruit in old age. " My life has had two sides, — one 
employed in thinking, and the other in action; and I 



TWENTY YEARS OF PRINCETON 239 

have not found the two inconsistent. I am sure that 
the metaphysics I have taught have been all the wiser, 
because I have become acquainted with men and man- 
ners. I have been identified with important public 
events in Scotland, in Ireland, and now in the higher 
education in America, and I should like to leave some 
record behind of what I have done and seen, especially 
ill helping to form in the district in which I lived the 
Free Church of Scotland. But if I am spared to do any 
important work, it must be in a different field. 

It is not without feeling that I take the step which I 
now take. It recalls that other eventful step in my life, 
when I gave up my living, one of the most enviable in 
the Church of Scotland, when the liberties of Christ's 
people were interfered with. I am sorry to be separated 
from the employments in which I have had such enjoy- 
ment. I regret that I no longer stand in the same rela- 
tion to all the students of this college. I may feel a 
momentary pang in leaving the fine mansion, which a 
friend gave to the college and to me, — it is as when 
Adam was driven out of Eden. I am reminded keenly 
that my days of active work are over. But I take the 
step firmly and decidedly. The shadows are lengthen- 
ing, the day is declining. My age, seven years above 
the threescore and ten, compels it, Providence points to 
it, conscience enjoins it, the good of the college demands 
it. I take the step as one of duty. I feel relieved as I 
take it. 

I ask forgiveness of God and man for any offence I 
have given in my haste. I leave with no unkind feeling 
toward any. I should be sorry if any one entertained 
a malignant feeling toward me. It has been a high 



240 JAMES MCCOSH 

honor and an unspeakable privilege, that I have been at 
the head of this noble institution for such a length of 
time, and that so many spheres of usefulness have been 
thrown open to me. I leave the college, in a healthy 
state, intellectually, morally, and religiously, thanks be 
to God and man. I leave it with the prayer, that the 
blessing of Heaven and the good-will of men may rest 
upon it, and with the prospect of its having greater use- 
fulness in the future than even that which it has had in 
the past. 



work <y 
in the last 

T'Pear on t 



£.Q?)\ 4« U^'Aa\ ^\(;^TA-^0\0C\(\ T) SUOlH 




From a photograph taken in i8g2 



CHAPTER XVI 

LIFE IN AMERICA 

1868-1888 

T T has been given to few college presidents to see the 
work of their hands prosper in the measure recorded 
in the last chapters. Two important reasons do not 
appear on the surface of the narrative. It is true as was 
said at the time, that the president had examined the 
most famous institutions of learning in their practical 
workings, that he had studied the best educational 
methods, that he knew the human mind profoundly, that 
he possessed a rare native sagacity. How true this was 
is shown by the minutes of the trustees, in which they 
record the fact that " the period of Dr. McCosh's presi- 
dency will ever be memorable in the history of the 
college for the introduction of a wisely-balanced and 
carefully guarded scheme of elective studies and of post- 
graduate and non-resident courses, and for the establish- 
ment of the schools of science, of philosophy and of art ; 
for the initiation of a system of fellowships and an 
increase of prizes and other methods for stimulating 
study and research; for the great enlargement of the 
library, museums and scientific apparatus ; for the im- 
portant additions to the number of eminent and well- 
qualified professors and instructors; for the erection 

of suitable buildings, whose architectural beauty and 

16 



242 JAMES MCCOSH 

effective arrangement have revolutionized the appearance 
of the campus ; for a very considerable increase in the 
number of students, whose religious life and moral tone 
and manly character have been objects of earnest solici- 
tude, as well as their intellectual training. " But after 
all these results were not due alone to Dr. McCosh's 
experience and technical training ; paramount to that, if 
not superior to it, was the hold he had on the country at 
large by reason of that remarkable personality to which 
reference has been made, and through this public reputa- 
tion upon the students who came under him. Being the 
great virile, intense man he was, he was also a great 
citizen ; as such he commanded the hearty support of his 
nearest associates, attracted the attention of those further 
away in order to win their confidence, and thus widened 
his circles of influence until there were few intelligent 
Americans who did not know about him and appreciate 
his efforts. No youth felt that he was venturing on 
unknown seas when he came to Princeton. 

This eminent citizenship was supplemented by a 
family life singular in its strength and harmony. No 
public man ever owed more to the support of his home 
surroundings. Himself an absorbed thinker and a bold 
polemic, it was natural that he should be indifferent to 
the little cares of daily life and unconscious of the sore- 
ness felt by his antagonists. But throughout his career 
he was strengthened and supplemented by a wife who 
thoroughly understood the value of tact and considera- 
tion, who perfectly realized the proportions of income 
and expenditure in the material and social markets of 
the world, and who, animated by devotion and Christian 
fortitude, thought no pains too great to be taken in the 



LIFE INAMEKTCA 243 

spheres of hospitality, charity, and personal attention for 
those who touched the McCosh household either in its 
private or its public relations. The president's house 
was the social centre of the college and the community. 
Its appointments avoided the extremes of parsimony and 
luxury, so that men, women, and young people of every 
rank were receptive to the influences of its geniality and 
comfortable simplicity, without any sense of either lack 
or superfluity. A wholesome prudence and economy kept 
the head of the household free from any feeling of being 
hampered and without harassing anxiety for the future. 
There is no human perfection ; but such matters were so 
nicely adjusted in that home that the freest play for 
personal activity was left to every member of it, and 
from this Dr. McCosh profited in his educational and 
ecclesiastical avocations to a degree which cannot be 
overstated. The Isabella McCosh Infirmary, a solid, 
commodious structure erected and equipped for the most 
part by those who had been the beneficiaries in some 
form of Mrs. McCosh's bounty in the way of kindness 
received, testifies to the gratitude of the subscribers and 
to the nature of Mrs. McCosh's personal labors among the 
students. The eldest son, Alexander Guthrie McCosh, 
a successful merchant of great integrity, a man of ex- 
cellent parts and pleasing address,, a tender son and a 
Christian gentleman, dying untimely, left his earnings 
to his parents, and by increasing their fortune increased 
their beneficence. His name will continue to live in the 
handsome prize, founded by his parents, of which Dr. 
McCosh has made mention. The other son and two 
daughters survive. They were one and all equally help- 
ful in their way, — the eldest daughter having been for 



244 JAMES MCCOSII 

years a fellow-worker with her father, acting as his 
amanuensis. 

Before considering the activity of Dr. McCosh in the 
departments of good citizenship less directly connected 
with Princeton College, a word should be said in addition 
to his own statements for the purpose of emphasizing 
the importance of his educational philosophy. Con- 
vinced that a " studium generale " embracing all the 
liberal arts was the very core of a true university, he 
began his work by strengthening the old American col- 
lege curriculum as he found it. Wisely niggard of 
every national and local influence already in store, he 
promptly won the confidence of the professors already 
installed, some of them men eminent in science and 
philosophy, and then proceeded to reorganize the higher 
departments of each discipline under the heads of science, 
literature, philosophy and the fine arts, in order to make 
the two final years of college introductory to the highest 
specialization in such university courses as he hoped 
eventually to found. This device, at first somewhat 
mechanical in its general arrangement, soon fostered the 
beginnings of a real organic life, and these he proceeded to 
develop historically and singly, as material in teachers 
and students presented itself. In this way the advance 
of Princeton was not by innovation, but by cherishing the 
things that were, and by the development of her natural 
vigorous life. Those possible benefactors who had hoped 
they might give wisely found that they could do so to 
any extent, and the streams of endowment recapitulated 
by him flowed for a time in an unobstructed channel 
with a steady stream. The process continued almost to 
the last without a break. To the choice of teachers 



LIFE IN AMERICA 245 

equal care was given. Men familiar with other institu- 
tions and with education in both continents, specialists 
of eminence and trained teachers were sought with as- 
siduity to fill vacancies, but when found they were not 
necessarily chosen; one final test was imposed by Dr. 
McCosh in his own mind, that they should be likely 
to acquire enthusiasm and to develop loyalty for those 
things for which Princeton stood. Perfectly aware that 
system was nothing without men to work it, he used the 
faculty meeting as a forum for the discussion of educa- 
tional questions, reducing its judiciary function to a 
minimum. It became therefore a means of unifying the 
sentiments and methods of the instructors, of inspiring 
them with a feeling of co-operation, and above all else 
of giving them an opening for the enforcement upon the 
president of the opinions they derived from their own 
experience. The procedure of the college was thus the 
expression of a co-operation between the president and 
professors, in which each had a full constructive share. 

Dr. McCosh has clearly explained his attitude toward 
the students, his theory and practice of discipline, his 
method of rooting up evil practices in the college world. 
He not only realized that boys and young men would 
soon be men doing the world's work, he appreciated 
that the college was composed of its units and would be 
the resultant of the forces thus put into it. " A college 
depends, " he once said, " not on its president or trustees 
or professors, but on the character of the students and 
the homes they come from. If these change, nothing can 
stop the college changing. " Every student therefore 
was to him a personality. He might not know the 
name nor recall the face of a young man, but there is 



246 JAMES MCCOSH 

no instance of his having mistaken any stranger for a 
Princetonian, and every member of the college was his 
" boy. " Walking and talking, he yet found time for 
greetings to right and left of him as he passed through 
the college field. He was never too busy to pause and 
exchange a few friendly words with the youngest fresh- 
man, and as he has told the reader he was literally never 
too absorbed to stop and listen to any tale of injustice, 
indignation, repentance, sorrow, or happy confidence. 
He was proud to declare that no man ever entered or 
left the college without a personal interview with him. 
This was bound in the long run to have its effect. There 
was always a nucleus of loyal, ardent men among the 
undergraduates, but around it there was clustered in the 
opening years of his administration a mass of critical, 
dissatisfied, lawless students, wishing themselves else- 
where, ready for disorder, untrue to the best traditions 
of the place and to themselves. This spirit only passed 
as the improvement in the organization and work of the 
institution became evident, as the paternal character of 
severe discipline was understood, and as the fearless 
march of president and professors toward a lofty, invigor- 
ating, democratic university life became impressive. 
Then at last the Princeton youth became a pattern of 
loyalty, an enthusiast for the college which in lifting 
itself was lifting him. Idleness banished, work v/ell 
regulated, sport substituted as far as possible for vice, 
the moral responsibility quickened by a strong, simple 
faith, — such was Dr. McCosh's theory of the process in 
which college students with all their imperfections were 
to be fitted to lead the life of their respective communi- 
ties to higher things. 



LIFE IN AMERICA 247 

As time went on and the callow graduates became 
experienced men, they developed an indescribable fervor 
of personal affection for their former guide and counsel- 
lor. They recalled how he had stimulated their think- 
ing, checked their follies, built up their habits, fostered 
their independence and respected their personality, and 
were both humbled and grateful. The scenes at com- 
mencement time when the " old boys " came back and, 
announcing their names, grasped the " Doctor's " hand 
and gazed into the " Doctor's " eye, were scenes of sober 
gladness which were profoundly significant of a great 
educational work. Oftentimes Dr. McCosh was the man 
of granite, severe and commanding in his class-room, 
fearless to enter and quell any riotous demonstration, 
physically impressive and sometimes stentorian in his 
tones. But every true heart recognized another in him, 
and on that point the young are not in the long run to 
be deceived. At times too he discovered the strong vein 
of sentiment which was in his nature. His sighs over a 
young man hardened in vice were those of a father, and 
tears of joy sprang unbidden to his eyes on the return of 
a prodigal. His emotions were easily reached by a tale 
of suffering, and no good student left Princeton for lack 
of means, if the president knew him to be laborious and 
self-denying ; none but the recipients of his bounty were 
ever aware of his acts of kindness unless it were those 
generous friends to whom he appealed when the demand 
was beyond his own means, and who desired him to be 
the almoners of their bounty. 

Dr. McCosh has spoken of his fondness for nature. 
It is essential to the understanding of his character and 
work that his creative imagination should be justly esti- 



248 JAMES MCCOSH 

mated. He never was old, for he lived in the present 
and future to his last hour; the products of experience 
were for him merely the elements of new constructions 
which he visualized and then critically examined. If 
they bore his tests of value he sought to realize them 
with all his energies ; if not he smiled at his own con- 
ceits and put them away without a regret. In his enjoy- 
ment of natural scenery this came out distinctly. On 
his first visit to America he spent some time among the 
Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts, whose gentle beauties 
he fully appreciated. President Hopkins of AVilliams 
College recalled a visit from Dr. McCosh as among his 
most pleasant recollections and has thus described it: 
" It was during the summer vacation ; the weather was 
fine, and we were quite at leisure to stroll about the 
grounds and ride over the hills. Eiding thus we 
reached, I remember, a point which he said reminded 
him of Scotland. There we alighted. At once he 
bounded into the field like a young man, passed up the 
hillside, and, casting himself at full length under a 
shade, gave himself up for a time to the associations and 
inspiration of the scene. I seem to see him now, a man 
of world-wide reputation, lying thus solitary among the 
hills. They were draped in a dreamy haze suggestive 
of poetic inspiration, and, from his quiet but evidently 
intense enjoyment, he might well, if he had not been 
a great metaphysician, have been taken for a great poet. 
And, indeed, though he had revealed himself chiefly on 
the metaphysical side, it was evident that he shared 
largely in that happy temperament of which Shakespeare 
and Tennyson are the best examples, in which meta- 
physics and poetry seem to be fused into one and become 



LIFE IN AMERICA 249 

identical. " The explanation of Dr. McCosh's passion for 
nature was that out of its elements he could construct his 
imaginings without fear of using deceptive or base mate- 
rial. Eeposing in the world of beauty with perfect confi- 
dence, he gave free course to that association of ideas and 
that kaleidoscopic rearrangement of her suggestions which 
is the best repose. It was curious that at the age of 
seventy-two he should have caught hay fever, an irritat- 
ing annoyance from which he never escaped, and that 
in consequence he should have been compelled to spend 
a certain period every year among the northern hills of 
New Hampshire. This constant association with their 
charms ended in utterly captivating him, and the weeks 
he spent at Franconia or at Jefferson were among the 
most delightful of his life. 

While Dr. McCosh was primarily a thinker and 
teacher, and while his force was thrown into educational 
questions such as the retention of Greek for the bachelor's 
degree, the question of elective studies or the system 
of university development, yet he never forgot that he 
was an ordained clergyman. His plea for GreSk was 
partly based on its necessity in preparing candidates for 
a learned ministry. Though in no sense an ecclesiastic, 
yet he was profoundly interested in his own denomina- 
tion and in the question of church unity among Protes- 
tants. This he felt could be accomplished only by 
federation, never by amalgamation. Presbyterian union 
in particular lay near his heart. The idea of some alli- 
ance between the various churches of Presbyterian polity 
throughout the world seems to have occurred to many 
persons simultaneously. Dr. McCosh was one of them, 
and for twenty years he labored earnestly in the cause, 



250 JAMES MCCOSH 

making addresses, writing articles, expounding plans 
and assisting in the work of organization. He was con- 
vinced that in the Federal and State governments of the 
United States there was an excellent model for a certain 
degree of centralization. A few of the great principles 
as a doctrinal basis and a certain church-order, namely, 
the parity of ministers and representative councils em- 
bracing the eldership, being pre-supposed, the central 
council, he thought, should admit each church on its 
own standards as long as these embraced the cardinal 
truths of salvation; if at any time any organization 
departed from those principles in act or profession it 
should be cut off from the union. " Without interfering 
at all with the free action of the churches, " the central 
council, he explained, " might distribute judiciously the 
evangelistic work in the great field, which is the world, 
allocating a sphere to each, discouraging the plantation 
of two churches where one might serve, and the establish- 
ment of two missions at one place, while hundreds of 
other places have none. In this way the resources of the 
Church would be kept from being wasted, while her 
energies would be concentrated on great enterprises. 
When circumstances require it, the whole strength of 
the Church might be directed to the establishment of 
truth and the suppression of error and prevalent forms 
of vice. More important than all, from the heart of the 
Church might proceed an impulse reaching to the utmost 
extremities, and carrying life to every member. " The 
proposition was well received and Dr. McCosh lived to 
see the Pan-Presbyterian alliance a fact. Three times 
he crossed the ocean to promote its interests, and his cor- 
respondence in regard to it was immense. He was dis- 



LIFE IN AMERICA 251 

appointed that as time went on its work did not arouse 
greater interest nor accomplish the ends for which he 
had hoped, but he died in the conviction that its loose 
federation would grow stronger and stronger, resulting 
eventually in the organic unity of all Presbyterians. 

One of the burning questions in the fellowship of 
the General Assembly during the latter years of Dr. 
McCosh's life concerned the revision of the Westminster 
standards. In this he had an intense interest and he 
carefully prepared for the Presbytery of New Brunswick, 
to which he belonged, the following statement, which 
needs no comment : 

Ever since I became a teacher of the science of mind I 
have given more attention to philosophy than theology. 
In doing this, I have been able to serve religion more 
effectively than by any other course which I could take. 
My philosophy is realistic, being an exposition of the 
facts of our nature, and being so, it must be favorable to 
the Scriptures, which reveal to us what we are, as no 
other work has done. But I have been watching all 
along the signs of the times, and feel it to be honest to 
make known my views in every crisis of opinion in the 
Church. Hitherto I have not favored a revision of our 
standards, but the time has come when we must face the 
question which is now being put in the Presbyterian 
churches all over the world. I know there is some risk 
in stirring up the inquiry, but there is more danger in 
trying to ignore or suppress it, which, in fact, cannot 
now be done. Our students, our young men generally, 
and our laity are raising the question, and it is the plain 
duty of the Church to face it boldly and to guide the 



252 JAMES MCCOSH 

movement in the riglit direction. There are some pas- 
sages in the Confession of Faith and in the Larger Cate- 
chism of which it may be doubted whether they are 
founded on the Word of God, and which are offensive in 
their expression. Farther, there is a want of clear and 
prominent utterance, such as we have in the Scriptures, 
of the love of God as shown in the redemption of Christ, 
which is sufficient for all men, and in the free and hon- 
est offer of salvation to all men, non-elect as well as 
elect. For the last thirty-nine years of my life my 
intercourse has been chiefly with young men, who are apt 
to open their hearts to me as knowing that I sympathize 
with them. Most of our young men have not paid much 
attention to the Confession, but they will now do so, 
and as they do so, they will find certain passages knotty, 
crabbed, and hard to digest. I do fear that some of 
our best young men who meant to become ministers, 
may be allured away to other professions, and that those 
who go on to preach the gospel will find themselves 
annoyed and hindered by unwarranted expressions star- 
ing them in the face. In these circumstances, I am of 
opinion that the Church should, as speedily as possible, 
leave out a few obnoxious passages not at all needful to 
the completeness of the expression of the system of 
doctrine, and put in the very front a full declaration of 
God's love to men and a free offer of salvation. This 
being done for the present, the Church should hold itself 
ready to meet the wants of the years and ages as they 
roll on. I am not sure whether the present terms of 
subscription to the standards will be sufficient in the 
distant or even in the near future. Some of our younger 
men are saying, " Nobody believes all the Confession, 



LIFE IN AMERICA 253 

everybody rejects some parts, I may reject what dis- 
pleases me. " At this present time we get more than 
half our erudition from Germany, but also more than 
one-half of our heresies. Our Confession meets the 
heresies of the seventeenth, but not the more insidious 
ones of the nineteenth century. The Church has now 
to see that it has professors in our seminaries equal in 
learning to those in Germany. Ever since the Eeforma- 
tion, the Church has been amending its Confession. I 
confess that I should like to have in the Presbyterian 
Church a shorter and simpler creed than the Westminster 
Confession. At the same time our creed, be it shorter, 
or be it longer, must contain the saving truths embraced 
in the consensus of the churches. I believe that in the 
age on which we have now entered, the Church will have 
to engage in a fight for " the faith once delivered to the 
saints. " I hold that the Presbyterian Church is quite 
fit for that work. I deny, as is charged, that the great 
body of its ministers are Arminian or half-Arminian. 
I deny that Charles Hodge or Alexander Hodge has 
departed from the Confession of Faith. They may differ 
at times in the aspect they present and the phrases they 
use, but the truths are the same as those of the old 
Pauline theology. 

In connection with his firm convictions as to unity 
being essential for successful effort in Christian work. 
Dr. McCosh often contemplated the possibility of union 
among all the Protestant denominations. In the main he 
was not encouraged, so immovable seemed the obstacles 
of doctrine, practice, and feeling which separate them. 
But there was one tenet sacred to all which he felt might 



254 JAMES MCCOSH 

be used to spur them to harmony of action, the binding 
force of the command " to preach the gospel to every 
creature. " Since this cannot be done without combined 
action, and since there is no immediate prospect of all 
the churches becoming one at present, it should be done, 
he reiterated in public and in private to the very close 
of his life, by a denominational federation. His plan 
was as follows : 

First, in following out these views there should be 
such an understanding and co-operation among denomi- 
nations as to secure that the gospel be preached in every 
country and all over every country. The eyes of every 
church should be over the whole world of human beings 
to see that in every country the glad tidings of salvation 
be proclaimed. The increase of post-office facilities, of 
travelling, of telegraphs, should make this easier than in 
any previous age in the history of the world. We have 
no right to keep to ourselves and to keep back from 
others the gracious announcement that the Son of God 
hath left the bosom of the Father and come into the 
world to save sinners. If there be any nation or region 
which has not heard the joyful sound, it is the impera- 
tive duty of every church to see that the message be pro- 
claimed there, and join with other evangelical churches 
for that end. 

Secondly, every minister may have a district allotted 
to him. It is on this that I most fondly dwell. This 
district should, if possible, be immediately round his 
place of worship. I have often been extremely dis- 
gusted at seeing, in the old country and in this, a con- 
gregation fed with the richest truth from Sabbath to 



LIFE m AMERICA 255 

Sabbath, in the midst of a district where the people 
were miserably degraded, while yet nothing was done for 
them. Where a minister cannot have a district close to 
his church, let him have one in a convenient position. 
The minister is to feel that he has an oversight of that 
district, and to make himself responsible that every one 
has a Saviour proclaimed to him. The minister should 
labor in that district and should make his own people 
interested, especially in its young and in its poor; he 
must welcome every one who comes into his district to 
do good. Sometimes this mixed work may tend to pro- 
duce a little confusion and altercation, but things will 
soon settle themselves when there is anything of the 
spirit of Christ, and the district may need all the 
laborers. 

It is clear that the parochial plan cannot be estab- 
lished exclusively where the congregational plan has 
preoccupied the ground, but let the congregations every- 
where combine so much of the parochial system as that 
each have a district allotted to it. In this district the 
minister should labor and take with him into it all the 
members of his congregation who are willing to work in 
Christ's cause, to visit the sick, to set up Sabbath schools, 
and to assist all who need spiritual help. These selected 
districts scattered all over the land may come to embrace 
all the spiritually destitute districts, and to spread 
gospel agents over every district, all over the land. 

It is by some such method that I expect the gospel to 
be preached to every creature. 

I may be permitted to state that as a parochial min- 
ister in Scotland I took advantage of both methods, the 
congregational and the parochial. My colleague and I 



256 JAMES MCCOSH 

had upwards of fourteen hundred members in our church 
to whom we preached the gospel, and we were able to look 
after every individual, male and female, old and young, 
in the district. The consequence was that in a parish of 
six or eight thousand inhabitants there were not a dozen 
who did not go to the house of God more or less fre- 
quently. I confess I should like to see this system 
spread over the whole of this country. Working on this 
method, every degraded district would come to have its 
agents, male and female, working in it. In this way the 
whole land might be covered with agents working for 
Christ. The wealthier and more moral and Christian 
districts might be left to provide ministers for them- 
selves, and the more degraded districts have evangelical 
agents provided for them. It is in this way I confess I 
expect to have the whole land covered with gospel mes- 
sengers, so a degraded one may feel that he has a Chris- 
tian friend to whom he can apply in time of need. 

It is a plan which can be adopted by any church with- 
out the breach of any denominational principle. Instead 
of a grand church union being adopted first and then 
evangelistic work following, it will be by the church 
work that church union is produced. 

It might easily be supposed that a man between the 
ages of fifty-seven and seventy-two would have exhausted 
all his energies in the various activities of a college- 
presidency, of authorship, of teaching and of leadership 
in church discussions. But it would be a serious omis- 
sion in the record of Dr. McCosh's American life to pass 
by the activities of his citizenship. As one of his most 
famous pupils said in a beautiful prose threnody delivered 



LIFE IN AMERICA 257 

after his instructor's death, the Doctor was born an 
American and a Princetonian. When once he had 
decided to accept the presidency of Princeton he accepted 
along with it the position of leadership in patriotism. 
Always mindful of his origin and passionately devoted 
to the land of his birth, he was nevertheless naturalized 
at the earliest moment, and taking a warm, intelligent 
interest in American politics, performed with scrupulous 
fidelity the duties of his citizenship. In particular he 
always kept his hand on the local interests of Princeton, 
exerting his influence for the choice of good men to office, 
securing wise legislation and restraining the little tem- 
pests sometimes awakened by the conflicting interests of 
town and college. Temperance legislation was his special 
care, as the saloon was his horror. In the interest of 
sobriety among his students he used every force to check 
and regulate the sale of intoxicating drink among the 
whole community, shunning no antagonisms, sparing no 
foe, using every weapon for the attainment of an end 
paramount to all others in importance. He was there- 
fore a personage to be reckoned with in local politics, 
and as such took no pains to withdraw himself from the 
profane touch. 

As is well known, the presidents of our leading col- 
leges are summoned repeatedly by the newspapers to help 
in forming public opinion through the expression of their 
own views. From this Dr. McCosh never shrank ; he 
took care to get the best information, to weigh it care- 
fully and to state his conclusions clearly. And in this 
he was able so completely to assume the American stand- 
point that he never aroused native jealousy; for the most 
part it was entirely forgotten that he was not born in 

17 



258 JAMES MCCOSH 

the land of his adoption. In general he was a stanch 
Eepublican, but at the same time he was thoroughly 
independent; understanding that his position required 
broad views, he felt free to criticise the party of his 
choice unsparingly when occasion required. Throughout 
the contest for Civil Service Eeform he gave substantial 
support to every effort put forth for its furtherance, and 
the interest awakened among his students by his efforts 
early led to the formation of a Civil Service Eeform Asso- 
ciation in Princeton College. During the years in which 
he was influential in the management of the two last 
series of the " Princeton Eeview " he was constantly put- 
ting forward as themes for discussion in its pages every- 
thing that made for purity in politics. 



CHAPTER XVII 

AFTERMATH 

1888-1894 

A T the age of seventy-seven the President of Princeton 
College found himself still in the full enjoyment of 
all his powers, his intellectual force not diminished, 
and his physical strength still sufficient to meet all his 
demands upon it. The institution to which he had so 
long been devoted was prospering as never before, the 
numbers of its teachers and pupils were steadily in- 
creasing, the work done by its scholars and writers was 
improving and commanding attention, the loyalty and 
enthusiasm of the corporation and alumni was only 
equalled by that of the undergraduates. Dr. McCosh 
himself felt no need of repose ; his armor was neither 
heavy nor galling ; the stately home he occupied and the 
honors with which every year met him in his high social 
station were constant reminders of the distinction he 
had attained, — yet with iron will he determined to 
forego his hard-earned rewards, to resign his place and 
its emoluments completely and unreservedly. He feared 
lest the infirmities of old age might gradually cloud his 
judgment, lest the advancement of Princeton might thus 
suffer a check, lest the dignity and influence of a long 
life might be impaired by feebleness at its close. Look- 



260 JAMES MCCOSH 

ing into the future, lie saw himself for some years still 
active in public life as a philosopher, lecturing, writing, 
and revising, but that was all. The same will-power 
which made him resign, kept him from meddling with 
affairs which were no longer his, and relegated him to 
the class of those who, having deserved well of their 
country, are content to see the fruit of their labors pros- 
pering in the hands of trusted successors. A regular 
attendant at the religious services of the university, for 
two years a commanding lecturer in its halls, deeply 
interested in every detail of its progress, he was other- 
wise a private man ; " a model ex-president " was the 
high compliment paid to him by his successor. 

In 1889 Dr. McCosh was invited to lecture on the 
Merrick foundation before the Ohio Wesleyan Univer- 
sity. He chose for his theme, " The Tests of the Various 
Kinds of Truth. " The lectures, afterwards published in 
a volume with that title, were quite up to the writer's 
highest standard, and were received with every mani- 
festation of respect and interest. Dr. McCosh himself 
was kindly entertained, but, unfortunately, the weather 
was very bad, even for March; the lecturer caught a 
heavy cold which turned into a severe attack of bron- 
chitis and confined him for weeks to a sick bed. This 
warning made it clear that similar invitations must there- 
after be declined, as they were, though most regretfully. 
In the same year Dr. McCosh delivered two courses of 
college lectures in Princeton, both of which were after- 
wards published. That on " First and Fundamental 
Truths " is a successful attempt to present his system of 
thinking objectively ; the other, on " Various Kinds of 
Truth," was a vigorous defence of reality. The central 



AFTERMATH 261 

concept of the latter he further elucidated in the lectures 
delivered from time to time during the following year. 
This course was also printed in a slender volume entitled 
" The Prevailing Types of Philosophy, can they reach 
reality logically ? " In addition to these philosophical 
discussions he began another which was completed and 
published two years later, also in pamphlet form. The 
title of this, which was really the author's final attempt 
at constructive work, is " Our Moral Nature. " Its value 
lies in its promise rather than in any fulfilment. It 
displays extensive reading and foreshadows a method by 
which the writer's philosophy could be used in a con- 
structive Christian ethic ; but beyond this, as might be 
expected, it does not go. 

Dr. McCosh's last public appearance of note was at 
the International Congress of Education held in connec- 
tion with the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago 
in July, 1893. One of the members of that body has 
written that in the main he was the most noted figure 
of the assemblage. In spite of his extreme age he ex- 
hibited much of his native vigor and adroitness when 
called on to preside, quelling the unruly, checking the 
eccentric, and promoting wise discussion. His own 
contribution was a paper on "Eeality: What Place it 
should hold in Philosophy?" which is printed in the 
proceedings of the congress. The many famous men pres- 
ent delighted in showing deference to such a brilliant old 
age, and cordially paid their honors to the Christian 
philosopher who at eighty-two was not only a Nestor in 
council but also like an Ajax in battle. During this 
journey Dr. McCosh's health was still vigorous; though 
much feted by his friends and pupils in the great western 



262 JAMES MCCOSH 

capital, he suffered no inconvenience and in the visits 
which he was able to make to the great fair he became 
an interested student. His impressions of what he saw 
were clear and deep ; he apprehended perfectly the signifi- 
cance of such an exhibition in its time and place, and 
returned with abundant matter for wise reflection. Upon 
his mind there was made one iudelible impression, a con- 
viction of the splendor and strength in American civili- 
zation, a certainty as to the dangerous tendencies of its 
superabundant idealism, and an abiding sense that to the 
end he should sound the trumpet note of his own realistic 
message. Almost immediately he began the composition 
of his last published work, with the significant title 
" Philosophy of Reality : Should it be favored by Amer- 
ica ? " The interrogative titles to the pamphlets which 
mark the close of Dr. McCosh's career as a writer are 
highly significant. He had been a polemic, a born 
controversialist, a " defender " throughout the years of 
his vigor, and he remained so to the very end. 

The celebration of Dr. McCosh's eightieth birthday 
was a delightful occasion and awakened wide-spread 
public interest, showing as it did how strong was the 
love of his co-workers and pupils. But it was not a 
public affair. In the morning President Patton with the 
faculty of the College called in a body to offer their con- 
gratulations. They carried with them a handsome piece 
of silver and a beautifully engrossed and illuminated ad- 
dress on parchment emphasizing their ties of personal 
regard and expressing their satisfaction at having been his 
co-laborers in a great work. Then came a delegation repre- 
senting the one hundred and fifteen of his pupils who 
were then teachers in various American colleges and 



AFTERMATH 263 

universities. They too brought a similar tribute, a mas- 
sive silver pitcher, with an inscription taken from Aris- 
tophanes' " Clouds. " ^ Such an experience has been en- 
joyed by few teachers; among those represented were men 
of note in many lines, and a few who had gone far from 
some of their teacher's fundamental positions. But each 
and all felt that Dr. McCosh's receptivity for new ideas, 
if only they were good, was the most remarkable quality 
of a man whom they knew to be busy at eighty incorpor- 
ating some of the latest results of German research in a 
new edition of his Psychology. Accordingly this charac- 
teristic had been selected by their committee as the point 
to be emphasized and on that account was chosen the Greek 
inscription engraved on their gift. The third event of 
the day was the presentation of a beautiful silver cup by 
representatives from the Princeton Club of New York, 
the associated alumni living in and near that city. 
As may be imagined, the recipient of all these testi- 
monials was deeply moved. 

It was with great satisfaction that among those who 

1 evrvx'ta yivoiro TavOpceTr^, Sri irpoT^Kwv 
es 0a9b ttjj rjKtKlas 
pewTepois ri)v (pvaiv ait — 
Tov TTpayfxaffiv xP'^Ti^erot 

KoX ao<piav fira<TKf7, Arist. Clouds, 1. 511. 

These lines may be rendered, — 

Prosperity attend him, since while passing on 
Into the vale of man's decline 
He yet with newer learning's tint 
His mind imbues 
And wisdom cultivates. 

The context is ironical, but the passage loses nothing of its force be- 
cause of that. 



264 JAMES MCCOSH 

had graduated from Princeton during his administration 
Dr. McCosh could number so large a number of clergy- 
men. During 1892 he was interested in establishing from 
his own means a foundation of X 250 at Brechin, the an- 
nual interest of which was to be used for enabling any- 
deserving young man of good moral character connected 
with his old congregation to prosecute his studies with 
the view of entering the ministry of the Free Church 
of Scotland. The following year he instituted a bursary 
at the same cost, which was to be awarded annually to 
the scholar attaining the highest eminence in the public 
school of Patna, the village nearest his birthplace in 
Ayrshire. In these acts of beneficence, which gave sub- 
stantial proof of his devotion to Scotland, and in found- 
ing the prize at Princeton in memory of his son, he 
found the keenest enjoyment. 

Yet it must not be thought that Dr. McCosh was 
spared the ordinary sorrows of advancing age. The 
house which he built for his occupation is commodious 
and exquisitely located, with a distant view across fertile 
lowlands toward the seashore. In his daily life he was 
cherished by all the cares which affectionate, thoughtful 
consideration can bestow. The students who throng 
the neighborhood greeted him with deep respect as he 
came and went on his daily walks, and the little chil- 
dren playing on the wayside hailed his appearance with 
shouts of delight, crowding to claim a ride on his 
" staff," as he always called it, or listening to his quiz- 
zical remarks with keen enjoyment. Wherever he 
appeared in the college field, or on the village street, 
or as he drove through the country by-ways which he so 
loved, he was recognized by every passer, and saluted 



AFTERMATH 265 

witli pleasant smiles. And yet for all that, he felt the 
burden of the body. Explaining his point of view he 
reasoned, like the philosopher he was, " that the ordinary 
happiness and comfort of mankind proceeds from two 
sources : first and largely, from healthy sensations which 
we feel ; secondly, from the gratification of the appetences, 
natural and acquired. But old age is apt to be deprived 
of both of these. Health with its springs of felicity is 
giving way to irksomeness and pains. Specially our 
appetences cannot be gratified. We try to exert our- 
selves in our pleasures, we find that we cannot do so. " 
But from first to last there was no querulousness ; even 
toward the close of life his sense of humor came to the 
rescue at the most trying times. To one who assisted 
him in a moment of physical exhaustion, and who bore 
only with great exertion one share of the weight of his 
massive frame, he turned with a deprecating smile and 
the exclamation in broad Scotch, " Hech, mon, ye had 
an awfu' tussle. " 

From time to time throughout the last three years of 
his life Dr. McCosh jotted down the reminiscences which 
have furnished the foundation of this volume. The 
occupation gave him some pleasure, but on the whole 
his feelings were those of regret, in fact at the close he 
was sorry that he had ever entered on the task, although 
he was unwilling to destroy a syllable of what he had 
written. The reason for this frame of mind is one which 
displays his character in the strongest light — he had 
been led to a stern self-examination, and the results were 
not to his liking. He wrote with unflinching severity a 
condemnation of his own faults which would have moved 
the bitterest critic, if such there ever were, analyzing 



266 JAMES MCCOSH 

his course, as he seemed to feel that he should, for the 
benefit of those he had influenced through his long life. 
But this stern duty faithfully performed, his buoyancy 
and faith reasserted themselves, and probably the last 
words he wrote were these : 



Farewell, hill and dale, mountain and valley, river 
and brook, lake and outflow, forest and shady dell, sun 
and moon, earth and sky. * * * Welcome what im- 
measurably exceeds all these — Heaven with its glory ! 
Heaven with its angels that excel in strength ! Heaven 
with the spirits of just men made perfect! Heaven 
with Jesus himself, so full of tenderness ! Heaven with 
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 

The asterisks stand for a tribute to his wife and family 
such as only a modest true-hearted, humble man could 
write to those who had supported and cherished him. 

Dr. McCosh's last illness was short and painless. As 
is well known to all who were near him in his advanced 
age, he grew more thoughtful in his expression, more 
gentle in his looks and gestures, more considerate and 
more spiritual in his conversation down to the very close 
of his life. He died on November 16, 1894. As at the 
end he lay in his chamber surrounded by all who loved 
him, speaking in tender accents from time to time, and 
then relapsing into gentle slumbers, the scene was not 
calculated to overpower the emotions, it seemed rather 
as if the natural was making its easy transit to the super- 
natural. And in the serenity of passing existence the 
onlooker seemed to see the strong man who had run his 
course, the warrior who had fought his fight, the captain 



AFTERMATH 267 

who had weathered the storms of doubt. But whatever 
thoughts arose, one was central, here was a great man 
who, having weighed the inexorable queries of whence, 
and what, and whither, was leaving the shores of life 
and passing confidently beyond the gateway into eternity, 
calling with undying conviction even as his tones grew 
fainter : God is real, His universe is real, man is not left 
without a guide in the world. 

He was fitly buried with stately academic ceremonial ; 
throngs of men, high and lowly, listened to the eulogiums 
pronounced over him ; the press of this and other coun- 
tries paid becoming tributes to his memory. In his death 
as in his life there was a note of triumph. Whatever esti- 
mate the future may put upon his contributions to the 
history of thought, he will have an imperishable monu- 
ment of substantial dimensions in what he accomplished 
as philosopher, teacher, and man for the age in which 
he lived. 

One of his eminent pupils has paid him this just and 
loving tribute : — 

" Young to the end, through sympathy with youth, 
Gray man of learning ! champion of truth I 
Direct in rugged speech, alert in mind, 
He felt his kinship with all human kind, 
And never feared to trace development 
Of high from low — assured and full content 
That man paid homage to the Mind above, 
Uplifted by the " Royal Law of Love." 

The laws of nature that he loved to trace 
Have worked, at last, to veil from us his face*, 
The dear old elms and ivy-covered walls 
Will miss his presence, and the stately halls 
His trumpet-voice ; while in their joys 
Sorrow wUl shadow those he called " my boys." 

Robert Bridges. 



BIBLIOGKAPHY 

By JOSEPH H. DULLES 

" I ^HE following list covers a period of sixty-one years, 
from the time that Dr. McCosh was twenty-two 
years old until the year of his death. It is arranged 
chronologically and thus constitutes an expos^ of his 
literary life. The absolute chronological sequence is 
broken in the cases of the Baccalaureate Sermons and the 
Philosophical Series, which are kept together. The list 
does not include all of Dr. McCosh 's contributions to 
the religious press, but does contain the more important 
of these. It embraces three classes : books, papers read 
before learned societies and articles contributed to vari- 
ous periodicals, and distinct pamphlets. The books may 
be distinguished by small capitals. The pamphlets are 
given as bound in paper, although in one or two cases 
there is no separate cover. Italics have been used to 
indicate the periodicals or published proceedings in 
which his various articles have appeared. 

On the Use and Functions of Preaching and the Advantages of 
Systematic Theology to a Preacher of the Gospel. Being a 
sermon delivered as a valedictory address to the Adelphi 
Theological Society, March 16, 1833. Edinburgh, 1833, 
31 pp., 12mo., paper. 

Review of J. H. Hilton's " The Work of the Holy Spirit in Con- 
version." [Unsigned.] The Edinhurgli Christian Instructor, 
vol. TI, Dec, 1833, pp. 831-811; continued in vol. Ill, Jan., 
1834, pp. 34-44. 



270 JAMES MCCOSH 

Eeport and address by the Kirk Session of the Old Church, Brechin, 
on the subject of Intemperance. Brechin, 1841, 10 pp., 12mo., 
paper. [Unsigned.] 

Recollections of the Disruption in Brechin. Intimation from the 
Old Church Pulpit, Brechin, Nov. 13, 1842. (Printed for 
private circulation.) Brechin, 1842, 12 pp., 12mo., paper. 

Does the Established Church acknowledge Christ as its Head? 
The Question answered by the official statements of the Judges 
and Statesmen of the Land and the Acts of the Established 
Church. 2nd edition, revised. Edinburgh, 1846, 16 pp. 8vo., 
paper. 

A Tribute to the Memory of Dr. Chalmers. By a former pupil. 
Brechin, 1847, paper. 

Aids in Prayer. For the use of the young. 3rd edition, with selec- 
tion of hymns. Brechin, 1848, 18 pp., 16mo., paper. 

The Method of the Divine Government, Physical and 
Moral. Ediubm-gh, 1850, viii + 540 pp., 8vo. 

The same. New York, 1851, 515 pp., 8vo. 

■ The same. New York, 1852. 

The same. 5th edition, revised, London, 1856, 8vo. 

The same. 7th edition. London, 1860, 8vo. 

The same. 9th edition. London, 1867, 8vo. 

The same. New York, 1869, Svo. 

The same. New York, 1874, xiv-{- 549 pp., Svo. 

On the Method in which Metaphysics should be prosecuted : being 
the introductory lecture of Dr. McCosh in Queen's College, 
Belfast, 12th January, 1852. Reprinted from the Belfast 
Mercury of Tuesday, Jan. 13th, 1852. Belfast, 1852, 16 pp., 
16 mo., paper. 

For Love's Sake. A Farewell Sermon, preached in the West Free 
Church, Brechin, Aug. 24, 1854. Brechin, 1854, 25 pp., 16mo., 
paper. 

The Necessity for an Intermediate System of Education between 
the National Schools and Colleges of Ireland, in letters 
addressed to his Excellency the Earl of St. Germains, Lord- 
Lieutenant of Ireland. Belfast, 1854, 22 pp., 8vo., paper. 

Typical Forms and Special Ends in Creation. By James 
McCosh and George Dickie. Edinburgh, 1855. 

The same. New York and London, 1 856, viii -\- 539 pp. Svo- 

The same. 2d edition. Edinburgh, 1857, viii -j- 556 pp., 

12mo. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 271 

■ The same. New edition. London, 1862, 8vo. 

The same. New York, 1869, viii -|- 539 pp., 8vo. 

The same. New York, 1876, viii -\- 539 pp., 8vo. 

The same. New York, 1880, viii -f 539 pp., 8vo. 

The Imagination ; Its Use and Abuse. A lecture delivered before 
the Young Men's Christian Association, in Exeter Hall, Jan. 
20, 1857. London, 1857, 35 pp., 12mo., paper. Reprinted in 
the Exeter Hall Lecture Series, 1856-1857, pp. 377-411. 
London, 1857, 12mo. 

A Sketch of a Tour on the Continent of Europe, with remarks on 
the lower and higher Educational Institutions in Prussia. 
The substance of a paper read before the Belfast Natural His- 
tory and Philosophical Society, April 13, 1859. In the Pro- 
ceedings of the Society, pp. 1-4. Belfast, 1859. 

Sir WiUiam Hamilton's Metaphysics, Dublin University Magazine, 
vol. LIV, August, 1859, pp. 152-166. 

The Ulster Revival and its Physiological Abcidents. A paper read 
before the Evangelical Alliance, Belfast, Sept. 22, 1859. Bel- 
fast, [1859], 15 pp., 12mo., paper. 

The Shifting Scenes of Life : An Address to Youth. Belfast, [no 
date], 35 pp., 16mo., paper. 

The Mental Sciences and the Queen's University in Ireland: Being 
a letter to the Secretary of the Queen's University. Belfast, 
1860, 8 pp., 8vo., paper. 

The Intuitions of the Mind, Inductively Investigated. 
London and New York, 1860, viii -t- 504 pp., 8vo. 

The same. New and revised edition. London, 1865, xii -f- 

448 pp., 8vo. 

The same. New and improved edition. New York, 1869, 

xvi -|- 448 pp., 8vo. 

The same. New York, 1870. 

The same. 3rd revised edition. New York, 1872, xiv -[- 

451 pp., 8vo. ^ 

The Association of Ideas and its Influence on the Training of the 
Mind. A lecture delivered before the Dublin Young Men's 
Christian Association, the 3rd of April, 1861. Dublin, 1861, 
36 pp., 12mo., paper. 

The Supernatural in Relation to the Natural. Cam- 
bridge, [England], 1862, xii + 352 pp., 12mo. 

The same, Belfast and New York, 1862, xii -f- 370 pp., 12mo. 



272 JAMES MCCOSH 

Introduction to the Complete Works of Stephen Charnock, B. D. 
Being pages vii-xlviii of vol. I of The Works of Stephen 
Charnock. Nichol's Series of Standard Divines. Puritan 
Period. Edinburgh, 1864, 8vo. 

The Present Tendency of Religious Thought throughout the Three 
Kingdoms. A paper read before the British Organization of 
the Evangelical Alliance, Edinburgh, July 6, 1864. Edin- 
burgh, 1864, 32 pp., 8vo., paper. 

Supplement and Questions to Dugald Stewart's " Outlines of Moral 
Philosophy," In the " Outlines of Moral Philosophy," pp. 125- 
164. London, 1865, 12mo. 

The Religious and Social Condition of the United States as gath- 
ered in a summer's tour ; with the Formation of an American 
branch of the Evangelical Alliance. In the Proceedings of 
the Evangelical Alliance, 1866, pp. 15-24. 

An Examination of Mr. J. S. Mill's Philosophy. Being a 
Defence of Fundamental Truth. London and New York, 
1866, viii -f- 406 pp., 12mo. [The London edition inverts the 
order of the title, reading : A Defence, etc.] 

The same. 2nd edition with additions. New York, 1869, 

X + 470 pp., 8vo. 

The same. New York, 1871, 8vo. 

The same. New York, 1875, 8vo. 

The same. London, 1877, 8vo. 

The same New York, 1880, 8vo. 

Waiting for God. A sermon preached in Great Queen Street 
Chapel, April 26, 1867, in behalf of the Wesleyan-Methodist 
Missionary Society. London, 1867, 29 pp., 12mo., paper. 

Christ the Way, the Truth and the Life. A sermon preached in 
Surrey Chapel, May 8, 1867, before the Directors and Friends 
of the London Missionary Society. London, 1867, 28 pp., 
12mo., paper. 

Compulsory Education. A paper read before the National Asso- 
ciation for the Promotion of Social Science. Belfast, 1867. 
In the Transactions of the Association, pp. 379-385. London, 
1868. 

The Present State of the Intermediate Education Question in 
Ireland. Being the substance of a paper read before the 
National Association for the Promotion of Social Science, Bel- 
fast, 1867. In the Transactions of the Association, pp. 456-458. 
London, 1868. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 273 

Moral Philosophy in Great Britain in Relation to Theology. A 
paper read before the Evangelical Alliance in Amsterdam, 

1867. The American Presbyterian and Theological Review, 'iHe^ 
Series, vol. VI, Jan., 1868, pp. 3-20. Also printed separately 
under the title : Present State of Moral Philosophy in Great 
Britain in Relation to Theology. London, 1868, 13 pp., 8vo., 
paper. 

Recent Improvements in Formal Logic in Great Britain. The 
American Presbyterian and Theological Review, New Series, 
vol. VI, April, 1868, pp. 65-85. [The original form of the 
treatise on Logic] 

Mill's Reply to His Critics. The British and Foreign Evangelical 
Review, vol. XVII, April, 1868, pp. 332-362. Reprinted in 
The American Presbyterian and Theological Review, New Series, 
vol. VI, July, 1868, pp. 350-391. 

The Duty of Irish Presbyterians to their Church at the present 
Crisis in the Sustentation of the Gospel Ministry. Belfast, 

1868, 32 pp., 8vo., paper. 

Philosophical Papers. Containing : I. Examination of Sir 
William Hamilton's Logic. II. Reply to Mr. Mill's Third 
Edition. III. Present State of Moral Philosophy in Britain. 
London, 1868, 8vo. 

The same. New York, 1869, v -\- 413-484 pp., 8vo. 

[Paper II. is also found as Appendix II in An Examination of 
Mr. J. S. Mill's Philosophy. 2nd edition. New York, 1869.] 

Academic Teaching in Europe. Inaugural Address ; in Inaugura- 
tion of James McCosh, D.D.,LL.D., as President of the Col- 
lege of New Jersey, Princeton, Oct. 27, 1868, pp. 35-96. New 
York, 1869, 8vo., paper. 

Hopkins' " Law of Love and Love as a Law." The New York 
Observer, April 15, 1869. 

Address at the Semicentenary Celebration of the Presbyterian 
Board of Education, May 25, 1869. In the Proceedings of the 
same; pp. 19-23. Philadelphia, 1869. 

Baccalaureate Sermons: 

Christ the Way, the Truth and the Life. Being the Bacca- 
laureate sermon preached before the College of New Jersey, 
June 27, 1869. Princeton, 1869, 25 pp., 12mo., paper. 

Lessons Derived from the Plant. The Baccalaureate sermon 
preached before the College of New Jersey, June 26, 1870. 
Princeton, 1870, 32 pp., 12mo., paper. 
18 



274 JAMES MCCOSH 

Unity with Diversity in the Works and Word of God, The Bac- 
calaureate sermon preached before the College of New Jersey, 
June 25, 1871. Princeton, 1871, 30 pp., 12mo., paper. 
Faith in Christ and Faith in Doctrine Compared and Contrasted. 
The Baccalaureate sermon preached before the College of New 
Jersey, June 23, 1872. Princeton, 1872, 31 pp., 12mo., paper. 
Printed also in The Mercersburg Review, vol. XIX, July, 1872, 
pp. 414-438. 

On Singleness of Eye. The Baccalaureate sermon preached before 
the College of New Jersey, June 22, 1873. Princeton, 1873, 
24 pp., 12mo., paper. 

Living for a High End. The Baccalaureate sermon preached 
before the College of New Jersey, June 21, 1874. Princeton, 
1874, 22 pp., 12mo., paper. 

The Royal Law of Love ; or Love in Relation to Law and to God. 
A Baccalaureate sermon preached before the College of New 
Jersey, June 27, 1875. New York, 1875, 30 pp., 16mo., paper, 

The same. Brechin, 1875, 22 pp., 12mo., paper. 

The World a Scene of Contest. The Baccalaureate sermon 
preached before the College of New Jersey, June 25, 1876. 
New York, 1876, 32 pp., 12mo., paper. 

The Propriety of acknowledging the Lord in all our Ways. The 
Baccalaureate sermon preached before the College of New 
Jersey, June 16, 1878. New York and Princeton, 1878, 26 pp., 
12 mo. 

Dr. McCosh on Hazing — Old College Customs in Danger. The 
New York Ledger, Jan. 6, 1872. 

Address at the opening of the new Gymnasium at Princeton Col- 
lege, Jan. 13, 1870. The Presbyterian, Jan. 22, 1870. 

The Evangelical Alliance. Postponement of the Conference. The 
New York Observer, Sept. 1, 1870. Published also in The 
Evangelist of the same date. 

Address at the dedication of Dickinson Hall, Princeton College. 
The New York Observer, Nov. 3, 1870. 

The Laws of Discursive Thought. Being a text-book of 
formal Logic. London and New York, 1870, xx + 212 pp., 
12 mo. 

The same. New York, 1876, 12mo. 

The same. Revised edition. New York, 1881, 12mo. 

The same. New York, 1890, 12mo. 

Body and Mind. The Independent, Ajml 6, 1871. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 275 

Materialism. The Independent, April 27, 1871. 
Darwin's Descent of Man. The Independent, May 4, 1871. 
The Support of Ministers. The New York Observer, May 4, 1871. 
The Sustentation of the Ministry. The Evangelist, May 4, 1871. 
Competitive Examinations. Address at the openmg of the new 
academic year at Princeton College, Sept. 13, 1871. The 
Presbyterian, Sept. 30, 1871. 
Christianity and Positivism : A series of lectures to the times 
on Natural Theology and Apologetics. Delivered in New 
York, January 16 to March 20, 1871, on the Ely Foundation 
of the Union Theological Seminary. New l''ork and London, 
1871, viii + 369 pp., 12mo. 

The same. New York, 1875, 12mo. 

Questions of Modern Thought. Lectures by Drs. McCosh, 
Thompson and others. Philadelphia, 1871, 8vo. 

Crisis of the Sustentation Fund, The Evangelist, March 28, 1872. 

On Prayer. The Contemporary Revieio, vol. XX, Oct., 1872, pp. 
777-782. 

Prayer and Inflexible Law. The Independent, Dec. 5, 1872. 

Berkeley's Philosophy. The Presbyterian Quarterly and Princeton 
Review, New Series, vol. II, Jan., 1873, pp. 2-29. 

Sustentation of the Ministry. The Independent, Feb. 13, 1873. 

Notice of Dr. Burns. The Presbyterian Quarterly and Princeton 
Review, New Series, vol. II, April, 1873, pp. 337-341. 

Sustentation of the Ministry. The Presbyterian, JMay 10, 1873. 

Upper Schools. An address delivered before the National Edu- 
cation Association at Elmira, N. Y., Aug. 5, 1873. In The 
Addresses and Journal of Proceedings of the National Edu- 
cational Association, pp. 18-23. Peoria, 111., 1873. 

Dr. Guthrie's Early Ministry. The New York Observer, Aug, 7, 
1873 ; concluded Aug. 14, 1873. 

A Marked Defect in our Educational System. The Evangelist, 
Sept. 4, 1873. 

College Regattas and Saratoga. The Nero York Observer, Feb. 19, 
1874. 

The Sustentation Fund and Consolidation, The Presbyterian, May 
2, 1874, Published also in The Evangelist, May 4, 1874, 

Federation of Presbyterians, The Evangelist, Sept, 24, 1874, 

The Scottish Philosophy, Biographical, Expository, Criti- 
cal, FROM HuTCHESON TO HAMILTON. London, 1874, 8vo. 

The same. New York, 1876, viii -}- 481 pp., 8vo. 

The same. New York, 1880, 8vo. 



276 JAMES MCCOSH 

Ideas in Nature overlooked by Dr. Tyndall. Being an 
examination of Dr. Tyndall's Belfast address. New York, 

1875, V + 50 pp., 12mo. 

What is to become of the Sustentation Fund? The Evangelist, 

Feb. 25, 1875. 
Does the Church wish to Extinguish Sustentation ? The Evangel- 
ist, April 1, 1875. 
Does the Church wish Sustentation to go down ? The Presbyterian, 

April 3, 1875. 
The Church must now settle the Sustentation Question. The 

Presbyterian, April 17, 1875. 
What should now be done with Sustentation? The Evangelist, 

May 13, 1875. Published also in The Presbyterian, May 22, 

1875. 
On Prayer. In The Prayer-Gauge Debate. By Prof. Tyndall, 

Francis Galton, and others, pp. 135-144. Boston, 1876, 

12mo. 
Prepossessions for and against the Supernatural. A Criticism of 

Dr. Carpenter. The Popular Science Monthly, vol. IX, May, 

1876, pp. 21-29. 

The Princeton College Communion. The Evangelist, July 27, 1876. 
Is the Development Hypothesis Sufficient? The Popular Science 

Monthly, vol. X, Nov., 1876, pp. 86-100. 
The Development Hypothesis : is it sufficient ? New York, 

1876, 104 pp., 12mo. 
Discoveries in Science and Speciilations in Philosophy. In the 

Report of Proceedings of the First General Presbyterian 

Council, Edinburgh, 1877, pp. 187-194. Edinburgh, 1877. 
Elements involved in Emotions. Mind, vol. II, 1877, pp. 413-415. 
Broad Churchism in Scotland. Edinburgh, 1877, 15 pp., 12mo., 

paper. 
On American Preaching. The Evangelist, Sept. 27, 1877. 
On the Intercollegiate Association. The Evangelist, Oct. 25, 1877. 
Contemporary Philosophy : Historical. The Princeton Review, 

vol. I, Jan., 1878, pp. 192-206. 
Contemporary Philosophy : Mind and Brain. The Princeton Re- 
view, vol. I, March, 1878, pp. 606-632. 
Discipline in American Colleges. The North American Revieio, 

vol. CXXVI, May-June, 1878, pp. 428-441. 
An Advertisement for a New Religion. By an Evolutionist. The 

North American Review, vol. CXXVII, July, 1878, pp. 44-60. 

[Reprinted in The Conflicts of the Age. See below.] 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 277 

A Criticism of the Critical Philosophy, in reply to Professor 
Mahaffy. The Princeton Revieto, vol. II, Nov., 1878, pp. 889-915. 

Final Cause: M. Janet and Pi-ofessor Newcomb. The Princeton 
Revieio, vol. Ill, March, 1879, pp. 367-388. 

Law and Design in Nature. The North American Review, vol. 
CXXVIII, May, 1879, pp. 558-562. 

The Confession of an Agnostic. By an Agnostic. The North 
American Review, vol. CXXIX, Sept., 1879, pp. 274-287. [Re- 
printed in The Conflicts of the Age. See below.] 

Theologians of the Day : Joseph Cook. The Catholic Presbyterian, 
vol. IT, Sept., 1879, pp. 184-190. 

Herbert Spencer's "Data of Ethics." The Princeton Review, \o\. 
IV, Xov., 1879, pp. 607-636. 

Course of Study in the Academical Department of Princeton Col- 
lege. The Princeton Book, pp. 125-134. Boston, 1879. 

The Emotions. New York and London, 1880, x -f 255 pp., 
12mo. 

Development and Growth of Conscience. The Princeton Review, 
vol. VI, July, 1880, pp. 138-144. 

A Presbyterian College in America. The Catholic Presbyterian, 
vol. IV, August, 1880, pp. 81-84. 

The Importance of Harmonizing the Primary, Secondary and Col- 
legiate Systems of Education. An address delivered before 
the National Educational Association at Chautauqua, N. Y., 
1880. In The Addresses and Journal of Proceedings of the 
National Educational Association, pp. 138-146. Salem, O., 
1880. 

Criteria of the Various Kinds of Truth. The Princeton Review, 
vol. VI, Nov., 1880, pp. 419-440. Reprinted in The British 
and Foreign Evangelical Review, vol. XXX, Jan., 1881, pp. 122- 
144. [See also: Philosophical Series, No. 1, Criteria, etc., 
and Tests of Various Kinds of Truth. Both below.] 

How to deal with Young Men trained in Science in this age of 
unsettled opinion. In the Report of Proceedings of the Sec- 
ond General Council of the Presbyterian Alliance, Philadel- 
phia, 1880, pp. 204-213. Philadelphia, 1880. Reprinted as a 
pamphlet. Philadelphia [no date], 23 pp., 16mo. 

On Evolution. Article in J. G. Wood's Bible Animals, pp. 727-755. 
Philadelphia, 1880. 

On Causation and Development. The Princeton Review, vol. VII, 
May, 1881, pp. 369-389. Reprinted in The British and Foreign 
Evangelical Review, vol. XXX, Oct., 1881, pp. 750-771. 



i 



278 JAMES MCCOSH 

The Christian knows no man after the flesh. A sermon preached 
at the installation of the Rev. John S. Mcintosh, in Phila- 
delphia, March 17, 1881. The Preacher and Homiletic Monthly, 
vol. V, May, 1881, pp. 434-444. 

What Morality have we left? By a New Light Moralist. The 
North American Revieio, vol. CXXXII, May, 1881, pp. 497-512. 
[Reprinted in The Conflicts of the Age. See below.] 

Religious Conflicts of the Age, By a Yankee Farmer. The North 
American Revieio, vol. CXXXIII, July, 1881, pp. 25-42. [Re- 
printed in The Conflicts of the Age, under the title : Review 
of the Fight. See below.] 

The Conflicts of the Age. [Anonymous. Four papers orig- 
inally published in The North American Review, viz. :] 1. An 
Advertisement for a New Religion, by an Evolutionist. 2. 
The Confession of an Agnostic, by an Agnostic. 3. What 
Morality have we left ? By a New Light Moralist. 4, Review 
of the Fight, by a Yankee Farmer. New York, 1881, 90 pp., 8vo. 

The Senses. External and Internal, being Psychology Part I. 
Cambridge, [England], 1882, 86 pp., 8vo., paper. 

The Concord School of Philosophy. The Princeton Review, vol. IX, 
Jan., 1882, pp. 49-71. 

The Scottish Philosophy as contrasted with the German. The 
Princeton Review, vol. X, 1882, pp. 326-344. Reprinted in 
The British and Foreign Evangelical Review, vol. XXXII, Jan., 
1883, pp. 96-114. 

Philosophical Series : — 

1. Criteria of Diverse Kinds of Truth as opposed to Agnos- 
ticism. Being a Treatise on Applied Logic. New York, 
1882, viii -J- 50 pp., 12mo., paper, 

The same. London, 1884, 8vo. 

2. Energy, Efficient and Final Cause. New York, 1883, 
55 pp., 12mo., paper. 

The same. London, 1884, 8vo. 

3. Development: What it can do and what it cannot do. 
New York, 1883, 50 pp., 12mo., paper. 

The same. London, 1885, 8vo. 

4. Certitude, Providence and Prayer. New York, 1883, 46 pp., 
12mo., paper. 

The same. London, 1885, 8vo. 

5. Locke's Theory of Knowledge, with a notice of Berkeley. 
New York, 1884, 77 pp., 12mo., paper. 

The same. London, 1885, 8vo. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 279 

6. Agnosticism of Hume and Huxley, with a notice of the 
Scottish School. New York, 1884:, 70 pp., 12mo., paper. 

The same. London, 1885, 8vo. 

7. A Criticism of the Critical Philosophy. New York, 1884, 
60 pp., 12mo., paper. 

The same. London, 1885, 8vo. 

8. Herbert Spencer's Philosophy as culminated in his Ethics. 
New York, 1885, 71 pp., 12mo., paper. 

On Manly Sports. The New York Ledger, April 7, 1883. 

A Study of the Mind's Imagery. [In conjunction with Professor 
H. F. Osborn.] The Princeton Review, vol. XIII, Jan., 1884, 
pp. 50-72. 

Oversight of Students in Princeton College. The Evangelist, April 
17, 1884. 

The Place of Religion in Colleges. In the Minutes and Proceed- 
ings of the Third General Council of the Alliance of the Re- 
formed Churches holding the Presbyterian System. Belfast, 
July 2, 1884, pp. 465-470. Belfast, 1884. 

Learning Worshiping its King. The Pulpit Treasury, vol. II, 
Aug., 1884, pp. 241-242. 

The Origin of Evil. The Pulpit Treasury, vol. II, Nov., 1884, pp. 
438-439. 

Evolution and Development. Article in the Schaff-Herzog En- 
cyclopaedia of Religious Knowledge. New York, 1884 and 
1891. 

David Hume. Article in the Schaff-Herzog Encyclopsedia of 
Religious Knowledge. New York, 1884 and 1891. 

John Locke. Article in the Schaff-Herzog Encyclopaedia of Re- 
ligious Knowledge. New York, 1884 and 1891. 

Scottish Philosophy. Article in the Schaff-Herzog Encyclopsedia 
of Religious Knowledge. New York, 1884 and 1891. 

The New Departure in College Education, being a reply to Presi- 
dent Eliot's defence of it in New York, Feb. 24, 1885. New 
York, 1885, 23 pp., 12mo., paper. 

The Course of Study in Princeton College. Education, vol. V, 
March-April, 1885, pp. 353-359. 

What an American University should be. The Independent, July 

9, 1885. Reprinted ; New York, 1885, 16 pp., 8vo., paper. 
Habit and its Influence in the Training at School. A lecture 
delivered before the students of the Phillips Exeter Academy, 
Nov. 19, 1885. In The Phillips Exeter Lectures, pp. 25-46. 
Boston and New York, 1887, 12mo. 



280 JAMES MCCOSH 

What an American Philosophy should be. The New Princeton 
Review, vol. I, Jan., 1886, pp. 15-32. 

Religion in College : What Place it should have. Being an exam- 
ination of President Eliot's paper read before the Nineteenth 
Century Club, hi New York, Feb. 3, 1886. New York, 1886, 
22 pp., 12mo., paper. 

On Home Rule. The Evangelist, April 22, 1886. 

The Providence of God. The Pulpit Treasury, vol. IV, Aug., 1886, 
pp. 238-239. 

Realism ; Its Place in the various Philosophies. The New Prince- 
ton Review, vol. II, Nov., 1886, pp. 315-338. 

Psychology: The Cognitive Powers. New York and London, 

1886, 12mo. 

The same. New York, 1891, viii -(- 245 pp., 12mo. 

Psychology: The Motive Powers, Emotions, Conscience, 

Will. New York and London, 1887, vi + 267 pp., 12mo. 
Realistic Philosophy defended in a Philosophic Series. 
2 vols. Vol. I. Expository, v -\- 252 pp. Vol. II. Historical 
and Critical, v -f- 325 pp. New York and London, 1887, 12mo. 
[This work consists of eight philosophical treatises originally 
published separately. New York, 1882-1885. See above, Phil- 
osophical Series.] 
College Fraternities. T'he Academy [Syracuse, N. Y.], vol. 11, 

1887, pp. 372. 

Christian Philosophy. The Pulpit Treasury, vol. V, Aug., 1887, 
pp. 238-239. 

The Religious Aspect op Evolution. The Bedell Lectures 
for 1887. New York, 1888, xii -\- 109 pp., 12mo. 

The same. Enlarged and improved edition. New York, 

1890, xii -|- 119 pp., 12mo. 

Gospel Sermons. New York and London, 1888, 336 pp., 12mo. 

Twenty Years of Princeton College. Being Dr. McCosh's Farewell 
Address, delivered June 20, 1888, New York, 1888, 68 pp., 
8vo., paper. 

Dabney's Refutation of the Sensualistic Philosophy. But What 
Next? The Presbyterian Quarterly, Yol. II, July, 1888, pp. 274- 
282. 

Robert Elsmere and his new Christianity. The New York Ledger, 
Dec. 29, 1888. Reprinted as False Philosophy in Robert Els- 
mere in Our Day, vol. Ill, Jan., 1889, pp. 13-16. 

Robert Elsmere's new Christianity Examined. The New York 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 281 

Ledger, Jan. 5, 1889. Reprinted as False History in Robert 

Elsmere in Our Day, vol. Ill, Feb., 1889, pp. 146-151. 
Examination and Education. In The American Supplement to the 

Nineteenth Century for March, 1889, pp. 18-22. 
The Present State of the Evolution Question. The Independent, 

Oct. 3, 1889. 
Is there Final Cause in Evolution ? The Independent, Oct, 10, 1889. 
The Teacher, his Trials and Triumphs. The Independent, Nov. 

14, 1889. 

First and Fundamental Truths : Being a Treatise on Meta- 
physics. New York and London, 1889, x + 360 pp., 12mo. 

Whither? O Whither? Tell Me Where. New York, 1889, 47 pp., 
12mo., paper. 

The Tests of Various Kinds of Truths. Being a Treatise of 
Applied Logic. Lectures delivered before Ohio Wesleyan 
University on the Merrick Foundation. New York and Cin- 
cinnati, 1889, 132 pp., 12mo. 

The same. New York, 1891, 12mo. 

[This work is a slight enlargement of Criteria of Diverse Kinds of 
Truth, Philosophical Series, No. 1. See above.] 

Federation of Churches to secure that the Gospel be preached to 
every creature. The Christian Union, Feb. 6, 1890. Reprinted, 
with slight omissions, in Our Day, vol. V, April, 1890, pp. 
359-363 ; also in The Church Revieiv, vol. XVII, April, 1890, 
pp. 132-134. 

The Good that may arise from Revision. The Independent, March 

15, 1890. 

The Religious Aspect of Evolution. Article First. The New York 
Ledger, May 3, 1890. Article Second, May 10, 1890. 

Evils arising from the Church being controlled by the State. A 
paper read before the American Institute of Chi-istian Phi- 
losophy, June 3, 1890. In Christian Thought, 8th series, 1890, 
pp. 1-6. 

Recent Works on Kant. The Presbyterian and Reformed Review, 
vol. I, July, 1890, pp. 425-440. 

The Moral and Religious Oversight of Students. In Proceedings 
of the Second Annual Convention of the College Association 
of the Middle States and Maryland, held at Princeton College, 
New Jersey, Nov. 28th and 29th, 1890, pp. 83-86. 

The Prevailing Types of Philosophy, can they reach 
Reality logically ? New York, 1890, vii -j- 66 pp., 12mo., 
flexible cloth. 



282 JAMES MCCOSH 

John Witherspoon and his Times. Philadelphia, 1890, 30 pp., 

24mo., paper. 
Federation of the Churches. TTie Honiiletic Review, vol. XXI, 

May, 1891, pp. 396-401. 
Our Moral Nature. Being a 'brief system of Ethics. New 

York, 1892, vi + 53 pp., 12mo. 
Reality : What Place it should hold in Philosophy. A paper read 

before the International Congress of Education of the World's 

Columbian Exposition, at Chicago, July 28, 1893. In the 

Addresses and Proceedings of the same, pp. 682-686. New 

York, 1894. 
Philosophy of Reality : Should it be favored by America ? 

New York, 1894, x + 78 pp., 12mo., flexible cloth. 



INDEX 



Agassiz, Louis, and Darwinism, 123. 

America, Dr. McCosh's first trip to, 
163-165. 

Anderson, John, friendship of, with 
McCosh, 48, 49. 

Arbroath, McCosh's pastorate at, 55 et 
seq. 

Argyll, Duke of, his friendship with Dr. 
McCosh, 138, 141; his letter to Dr. 
McCosh, 141-143; his note to Dr. Mc- 
Cosh concerning Bunsen, 155. 

Athletics and Gymnastics in Princeton 
College, 222-224. 

Ayr, the district of, character of, in Dr. 
McCosh's early youth, 11 et seq. 

Begg, James, 89. 

Blair, John I., donations to Princeton 

College, 212. 
Bonner, Robert, donation to Princeton 

College, 192. 
Braun, Professor, Dr. McCosh visits, 

159, 160. 
Brechin, Dr. McCosh's pastorate at, 67 

et seq. 
Bridges, Robert, his tribute in verse to 

Dr. McCosh, 267. 
Buchanan, Robert, 89. 
Bunsen, Dr. McCosh visits, 149-155. 
Burns, Robert, 19. 

Candlish, Robert Smith, 89. 

Carlyle, Thomas, imitated by clergy- 
men, 81. 

Carskeoch, the birthplace of James 
McCosh, 10, 11. 

Carson, Jean, mother of James McCosh, 
8, 9. 

Chalmers, Thomas, Dr. McCosh's trib- 



ute to, 40-42, 89 ; regarded as the ablest 
defender of the churches established 
by law, 47, 

Church in Ireland, the, agitation in, 130 
et seq. 

Church of Scotland, Disruption in the, 
74-81, 86-88; men and scenes of Dis- 
ruption, 88-101 ; Erastianism, 86, 87 ; 
The " Moderates," 86, 87. 

Church unity, Dr. McCosh's interest in 
and views'on, 249-251, 253-255. 

Clarendon, Lord, reads "Method of 
Divine Government," 108. 

Combe's "Constitution of Man," 103, 
105. 

Cooke, Dr., and the Church in Ireland, 
130. 

Cunningham, William, 89. 

Darwin, his " Origin of Species," pub- 
lication and effect of, 123. 

Dickie, Dr. George, joint author with 
Dr. McCosh of " Typical Forms and 
Special Ends of Creation," 122, 123. 

Disruption, the, in the Church of Scot- 
land, 74-81, 86-88; men and scenes 
of, 88-101. 

Dufferin, Marquis, Dr. McCosh visits, 
139-141. 

Dunlop, Alexander M., 64, 90. 

Eliot, President of Harvard, Dr. Mc- 
Cosh's debate with, on the subject of 
elective and required studies, 199-202. 

Erastianism, 86, 87. 

Evolution, Dr. McCosh's position to- 
wards, 122-124, 234. 

" Examination of J. S. Mill's Philoso- 
phy'," by McCosh, 170-172. 



284 



INDEX 



Fettercairn, Dr. McCosh preaches 

at, 97, 98, 99. 
Firmerich, Dr., Dr. McCosh visits, 159. 
Fordoun, Dr. McCosh preaches at, 97. 
Free Church Movement, in Scotland, 

74-81, 86-101. 

Germany, Dr. McCosh's travels in, 
144-163. 

Gibson, Professor, of Belfast, instrumen- 
tal in obtaining chair of Mental Sci- 
ence for Dr. McCosh in Queen's Col- 
lege, Belfast, 108, 109. 

Gladstone, Sir John, and the Free 
Church, 98-101. 

Gladstone, William E., 100, 101. 

Glasgow University, Dr. McCosh's life 
and studies at, 24-36. 

Goltz, Graf von. Dr. McCosh visits, 
158. 

*' Gospel Sermons," by Dr. McCosh, 
52. 

Grampian Mountains, the, 91. 

Gray, Asa, and Darwinism, 123. 

Greek, as an obligatory study, 199- 
203. 

Green, Chancellor, Dr. McCosh's inter- 
view with, concerning hazing, 216- 
218. 

Green, John C, donations to Princeton 
College, 193, 194. 

Guthrie, Thomas, his character, 59. 60; 
as a preacher, 60-63, 89; goes to 
Edinburgh, 65, 66; his letter to Dr. 
McCosh concerning the Church of 
Scotland, 82-84. 

Gymnastics and Athletics in Princeton 
College, 222-224. 

Hat-stead, General, donation to 
Princeton College, 195. 

Hamilton, Sir William, 39, 40; his 
words to McCosh, 51; his opinion of 
"Method of Divine Government," 
105; his death and posthumous writ- 
ings, 170. 

Hanna, William, 105. 

Hart, Robert, his description of Dr. Mc- 
Cosh as a man and a teacher, 115-117. 

Hengstenberg, Dr. McCosh meets, 146, 
147. 

Hogg of Kirkliston, 90. 



Hopkins, Mark, recalls a visit of Dr. 

McCosh, 248. 
Humboldt, Alexander von, Dr. McCosh 

meets, 147-149. 

Inglis, David, 92, 93. 

Inglis, Robert, 92. 

" Intuitions of the Mind," by McCosh, 

166-170. 
Ireland, the Church in, agitation in, 

130 et seq. 

Jeffrey, Francis, 38, 39. 

Kennedy, Sir Archibald, his funeral, 

13. 
Knox, John, intelligence of the common 

people due to the work of, 14. 

Laird, John, 55, 59. 

Leaves, Dr. McCosh's theory of, 135, 

136. 
Le Conte, Joseph, his letter to Dr. 

McCosh, 234. 
Lee, Robert, 59. 
Leslie, Sir John, 39. 
Libbej', William, donation to Princeton 

College, 194. 
Library Meetings, introduced bj' Dr. 

McCosh, 180, 209, 210. 
Lochlee, the parish of, 91, 92. 
" Logic," by Dr. McCosh, 177. 
Lumsden, James, 59. 

McCosH, Alexander Guthrie, eldest 
son of Dr. McCosh, 243. 

McCosh, Andrew, father of James 
McCosh, 6 ; eulogium to, 6, 7; his 
charity, 7, 8; his death, 20; his 
religious character, 21. 

McCosh, James, ancestrj', 3-9 ; his 
father, Andrew McCosh, 6, 7, 8; his 
mother, 8, 9; his birth and early life, 
10 et seq. ; his words on the moral and 
religious character of the district in 
which he lived, and of Scotland, 11- 
19 ; his words concerning Robert 
Burns, 19; destined for the ministry, 
21; first schooling, 21 ; early reading, 
22 ; sent to Glasgow University, 23 ; 
his life and studies at Glasgow Univer- 
sity, 24-36 ; his reading of literature 



INDEX 



285 



■while at Glasgow, 26, 27; hi» essays, 
28; his work in Mathematics, 29, 30; 
Lis bent toward Philosophy, 30, 31; 
his ideas concerning social relations 
of professor and pupil, 32, 33, 35, 36 ; 
his life and studies at Edinburgh Uni- 
versit}% 37-49; his words concerning 
"Walter Scott, 38; concerning Francis 
Jeffrey, 38. 39 ; concerning John Les- 
lie, John Wilson, and William Ham- 
ilton, 39, 40 ; concerning Thomas 
Chalmers, 40-42, 89; concerning Dr. 
Welsh, 42, 43 ; forms resolution never 
to call on any one unless he had busi- 
ness with him, 42, 43; his reading 
while at Edinburgh, 44, 45; his atten- 
tion to the natural sciences, 45; the 
beginning of his " Method of Divine 
Government," 46 ; preaches about the 
country, 53, 54; his idea of a sermon, 
52; tutors for a time, 54; becomes 
pastor at Arbroath, 55 ; his -work and 
life there, 56 et seq. ; his words con- 
cerning William Stevenson, Robert 
Lee, John Laird, and James Lums- 
den, 59; concerning Thomas Guthrie, 
59-63, 89 ; receives and declines a call 
to Edinburgh, 64, 65; his words con- 
cerning Alexander Dunlop, 64, 90; 
accepts call to Brechin, 67; his de- 
scription of Brechin, 68, 69; his life 
and work at Brechin, 69 et seq. ; his 
■words concerning his wife, 73, 74; his 
words concerning the Disruption in the 
Church of Scotland, 74-81; accepts 
call to professorship in Queen's Col- 
lege, Belfast, 78, 108-111; one of a 
deputation to visit England to make 
known the claims of non-intrusion, 
80, 81 ; letter to, from Thomas Guthrie 
concerning the Church of Scotland, 
82-84 ; his earnestness, 85; his de- 
scription of the men and the scenes of 
the Disruption, 88-101 ; his words con- 
cerning William Cunningham, Robert 
Smith Candlish, Robert Buchanan, 
James Begg, 89, 90; concerning Hugh 
Miller, 90; his labors in behalf of the 
Free Church, 91-101 ; ambitious to 
become an author, 102 ; his philo- 
sophic creed, 103-105; his "Method 
of Divine Government" published, 
105 ; criticisms of and success of 



"Method of Divine Government," 
105-107; his opinion in later years of 
"Method of Divine Government," 
107; becomes professor at Queen's 
College, Belfast, 108-111; his method 
and principles in teaching philosophy, 
111-114; his character and qualities 
as a teacher, 114 et seq. ; Robert 
Hart's description of, 115-117; Pro- 
fessor Macloskie's words concerning, 
117-124; his share in authorship of 
" Typical Forms and Special Ends in 
Creation," 122; his attitude toward 
Evolution theory, 122-124, 234; his 
benevolent and religious work in Bel- 
fast, 125-128; works for temperance, 
127, 128; his scientific stud}' of edu- 
cational systems, 128 ; his attitude 
toward the American Rebellion, 128, 
129, 163 ; his work for the Church in 
Ireland, 129 et seq. ; favors a sustenta- 
tion fund and a national educational 
sj-stem, 130-133 ; receives and de- 
clines call to professorship in Glasgow 
University, 133, 134; his importance 
as a personage in Great Britain and 
Ireland, 134, 135; his words concern- 
ing the work " Typical Forms and 
Special Ends in Creation," 135-138: 
his friendship with the Duke of 
Argyll, 138-141 ; his acquaintance 
■with and visit to the Marquis of 
Duiferin, 139-141 ; letter to, from 
Duke of Argyll, 141-143; his trav- 
els in Germany, 143-163 ; his words 
concerning Professor Trendelenberg, 

144, 145, 157 ; concerning Michelet, 

145, 146 ; concerning Hengstenberg, 

146, 147, 156 ; his meeting with 
Humboldt, 147-149, 160-162; his 
meeting with and impressions of 
Bunsen, 149-155 ; his words on the 
state of theological belief in Ger- 
many, 153, 154; his letter to Mrs. 
McCosh concerning his travels in Ger- 
many, 156-163; visits Graf von Goltz, 
158 ; visits Dr. Firmerich and Profes- 
sor Braun, 159, 160; his words con- 
cerning Sydow, 160, 161; his record 
of trips to America, 163-165; his phi- 
losophy and teaching, 166-180; his 
"Intuitions of the Mind," 166-170; 
Professor Ormond's characterization 



286 



INDEX 



of, 168; his "Examination of J. S. 
Mill's Philosophy," 170-172; his 
" Supernatural in relation to the Nat- 
ural," 172; success of his works, 172; 
his confession of faith, 173-175; his 
"Logic," "Psycholog}'," and other 
important works, 175-178, 210; his 
power as a teacher, 179, 180; his man- 
nerisms, 179; introduces Library 
Meetings, 180, 209, 210; becomes 
president of Princeton College, 183, 
184; letter to, from Lord Shaftesbury, 
185-187; his inauguration, 187; his 
words on the condition of Princeton 
College on his coming, and donations 
made, 190 i,t seq.; defends Greek as 
an obligatory study, 199-203; his de- 
bate with President Eliot on subject 
of elective and required courses of 
study, 199-202 ; his comparison of 
American colleges with those of Great 
Britain and Europe, 204; hoped to 
form a studium generale, 213, 214, 
244; his words concerning hazing and 
other similar college practices, 215 et 
seq.: his interview with Chancellor 
Green concerning hazing, 216, 217; 
his experience with newspaper re- 
porters, 219, 220; his words on Greek 
letter societies, 221, 222; his words on 
gj-mnastics and athletics, 222-224; 
his words on morals and discipline, 
224-226; letter to, from Joseph Le 
Conte, 234; Andrew White's words 
concerning, 234; his hospitality, 236; 
his words on the life of a college 
president, 237, 238; his tribute to Dr. 
Patton, 238; his life and work at 
Princeton, 241 et seq.; his character as 
a man and a citizen, and an estimate 
of his services as a teacher and college 
president, 241-249, 256-258; his home 
and his family, 243; his relations to 
his students, 247-249; his buoyancy 
and love of nature, 247-249 ; his in- 
terest in and work for Church unity, 
249-251 ; his words on the revision of 
the Westminster Standards, 251-253 ; 
his views on union of Protestant de- 
nominations, 253-255 ; his interest in 
Civil Service Eeform, 258; work of 
his last years, 259-262; lectures be- 
fore Ohio Wesleyan University, 260 ; 



at the International Congress of Edu- 
cation at the World's Fair at Chicago, 
261 ; celebration of his eightieth birlh- 
daj', 262, 263; establishes a founda- 
tion of £250 at Brechin, 264 ; his last 
days, death, and burial, 264-267; 
tribute to, from Robert Bridges, 267. 

McCosh, James, Mrs., Dr. McCosh's 
words concerning, 73, 74. 

McCosh, Jasper, 3. 

McClymont, Mr., pursued by the Eng- 
lish, 9. 

Macloskie, Prof. George, his description 
of Dr. McCosh as a man and a 
teacher, 117-124; his note on Dr. 
McCosh's theory about leaves, 136. 

Makgill-Crichton,'90. 

Mansel, his philosophical works, 170. 

Marquand Henry G., donations to 
Princeton College, 192, 195. 

Maule, Fox, 90, 93. 

Menmuir, the parish of, 93-95. 

"Metaphysics," by Dr. McCosh, 178. 

" Method of Divine Government," by 
Dr. McCosh, beginning of, 46; pub- 
lication and success of, 105-107; au- 
thor's opinion of, in later years, 107. 

Michelet, Dr. McCosh's description of, 
145, 146. 

Mill, J. S., his philosophy, 170. 

Miller, Hugh, 90; his opinion of 
" Method of Divine Government," 106. 

" Moderates," the, in the Church of Scot- 
land, 86, 87. 

Monboddo, Lord, 97. 

Moncreiff, Henry, an opponent of Mc- 
Cosh in debate, 46. 

Murray, Hamilton, donation to Prince- 
ton College, 194. 

Murray, James O., Dean of Princeton 
faculty, 225-228. 

Orangemen, their condition, 131. 

" Origin of Species," by Darwin, pub- 
lication and effect of, 123. 

Ormond, Professor, his characterization 
of Dr. McCosh as a philosopher, 168, 

Panmure, Lord, 92, 93. 

Patton, Prest. Francis L., his words 
concerning Dr. McCosh's "Examina- 
tion of J. S. Mill's Philosophy," 171; 
Dr. McCosh's tribute to, 238. 



INDEX 



287 



Prime, Dr.W. C, donation to Princeton 
College, 195, 

Princeton College, its character, 182, 
183; Dr. McCosh chosen president, 
183; Dr. McCosh's coming begins a 
new epoch in historj' of, 187-190; 
condition of, 189, 190; endowments 
and new buildings given to, 192-195, 
212, 213; courses of studj' in, 198 et 
seq. ; required and elective courses in, 
203, 204 ; fellowship in, 204, 205 ; prize 
competitions in, 205 ; increase in pro- 
fessors, 205-207; scientific apparatus 
and collections, 207; periodicals, 208, 
School of Science, 208, 209; Philos- 
ophy courses, 209, 210; post-graduate 
courses, 211; finances, 212; number 
of students, 213; hazing and other 
degrading college practices, 215-220 ; 
Greek letter societies in, 221, 222; 
gymnastics and athletics in, 222-224; 
morals and discipline, 224-226 ; re- 
ligious work in, 227-233; typhoid 
fever epidemic, 235; Dr. McCosh's 
labors in, as a teacher and a president, 
and the results, 241-245. 

" Psj'chology," by Dr. McCosh, 177, 
178. 



Sandford, Daniel, a professor at 

Glasgow University, 29. 
Scotland, character of the Lowland 



people, 13-19; the Church of, Dis- 
ruption in, 74-81, 85-101. 

Scott, Sir AYalter, 38. 

" Scottish Philosophy," by Dr. McCosh, 
177. 

Smith, Quintin, first teacher of Dr. 
McCosh, 21, 24. 

Stevenson, William, 59. 

" Supernatural in relation to the Na- 
tural," by Dr. McCosh, 172. 

Sustentation Fund, the, for the Church 
in Ireland, 130-132. 

Sydow, Dr. McCosh's words concerning, 
160, 161. 

Thackeray, W. M., his ballad " The 

Last Irish Grievance," sung, 109, 111. 
Trendelenberg, Professor, Dr. McCosh's 

description of, 144, 145. 
"Typical Forms and Special Ends in 

Creation," by McCosh and Dickie, 

122, 123, 135-138. 

Welsh, Dr., 42, 43. 

Westminster Standards, Dr. McCosh's 
words on revision of, 251-253. 

White, Andrew his words concerning 
Dr. McCosh in the " Popular Sci- 
ence " monthh', 234, 235. 

Wilson, John, 39, 40. 

Wilson, William, 49. 

Wltherspoon, John, his ancestry and 
character, 183, 184. 







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